This half-hour long video of Taylor Swift meeting with some young kids discussing reading and writing is filled with sound advice for any writer of any genre. Taylor partnered with Scholastic to provide 25,000 new books for NYC schools. Taylor then donated her time to do this webcast with these great kids. This webcast is worth every minute of it's short 30-minute length and I highly suggest all writers listen to and watch the video .  A few of my favorite quotes from the webcast are: "Journaling is what made me discover that I loved poetry and poetry is so close to song writing in concept." "Writing your feelings down simplifies them." "If you make writing something you look forward to, who knows where it will take you?  Who knows if you'll start to think about story lines and you'll decide that you want to write a book someday?" "There are so many things you can discover about yourself if you write." ...

Do you have a plan for your writing? Did you write it down? One key point I tell my writing students is to have a written plan, much like a business plan, for their writing. A written plan is so important. In my soon-to-be-published revised edition of my writing book, I go into more detail about this. In a nutshell, this graphic explains why you need a written plan: There's power in writing something down. Writing it down makes it real and tangible. You can reread it. You can use it to keep you on track. A written goal is more viable. It grows from an idea to a possibility then a reality. Write often. Write well. Just write. ~Tricia

Today as I sit here and enjoy all my first-world privileges, get frustrated about my first-world problems and live in the lap of luxury in a carpeted house with full temperature controls and bathrooms galore and all kinds of entertainment at my fingertips, plenty of food in the house, things to support my hobbies, wifi as a given and stores all around me where I can buy whatever I want, whenever I want, and a car to drive me there and literally lacking nothing at all.....I wi ll bask in my first-world life because of those who served and the so very many who gave their lives so that I can have such a luxurious, plentiful life.  Yes, I care about those less fortunate in the world and give to missions that take the Gospel of Christ to them (since He is the only way to improvement of their lives), and also take medical services to them, etc. I give to them since I am unable to go myself.  But, when someone minimizes an American hardship by calling it a first-world problem, I thin...