My 20-year-old son, a graduate of our home school, is in college and he recently turned in a first draft paper to one professor, the final draft being due the following week. He expected a vast number of notes and things he had to change before his final draft. Instead, the professor suggested he move a few sentences around, made no corrections and told my son it was basically ready to be the final draft. My son was stunned. I gave him a fist bump and said, "You're welcome!" He looked at me curiously and I explained, "I made you diagram sentences in middle school, remember? This is the pay off. You're welcome." He went on to say that when he's writing his papers for school, he's constantly analyzing his sentences, almost automatically. I told him, "This is memory muscle. It was ingrained in you, through diagramming sentences, to analyze and weigh each word and how it fits into your writing." Folks, make your kids diagram sentenc...

If you're a writer or even an aspiring writer, you might already know that failure is an inevitable part of being a writer. Knowing this ahead of time can help when the failure comes. And it will come. One sure fire way to overcome failure is one simple practice: Keep writing. That's it. Just keep writing.  Famed author Amanda Hocking did just that. When she took my writing class, she had a thick file of rejection letters and they kept coming during the time she took the class. What did Amanda do as a result? She wrote more books. By the time she e-published, she had 17 finished novels. Now, because of her e-publishing success, she is an international sensation with book and movie deals that scream her success. She started out failing. She kept writing. She saw success. That's a simple formula. It will work for you, too. Keep writing. Write often. Write well. Just write. ~Tricia

I saw a post on another writing blog today which totally inspired me to write about reasons I write. The post I saw, here , was a Facebook post by The Writer's Circle and it said, "Why I Write #85 Because creating something that didn't exist before is as close to magic as I'll ever get." I love that! I also love to write but have never actually written out my reasons for writing. So, I decided to start a blog series on why I write. I suspect some reasons will need more explanation than others. These reasons aren't in any particular order, I'm simply listing them as I think of and realize them. Why I write #1: I write because I can. Growing up in an abusive home where I did not have many choices, writing was a choice I could make that no one could stop. If home wasn't conducive to writing, school was. If neither home nor school worked, my hollow tree down by the creek did. When the field was snow covered and the tree was unreachable, the hay...

I read a few tips on writing from J.R.R. Tolkien today and this one, "Keep writing, even through adversity," really spoke to me because our family is facing a time of great adversity. 19 days ago, a large tumor was discovered at the base of my husband's spine. It turned out to be cancer and quickly turned our lives upside down. You can read more of that story here , on another one of my blogs. Yesterday, I posted on The Total Writer's Facebook page that I'm taking a hiatus from writing in order to deal with my husband's cancer. Well, today, I'm discovering that I can't keep to that. I can't not write. I need to write and was feeling very much like I needed to write, but felt guilty as though, somehow, my writing was an invalid distraction to the cancer and all it entails. But, today, I no longer feel that way. I realized, through reading J.R.R. Tolkien's tip to write through adversity, that writing through his cancer is actually a good,...

As a published writer, one of my interests is coaching other writers. I thoroughly enjoy coaching writers who are serious about getting published. While I love coaching, I suspect the person being coached isn't having as much fun as I. When I coach writers, one of my jobs is to tell them what's wrong with their writing. While hearing tough, honest criticism can be hard, it's also vitally important. Coaching is somewhat like editing, but more style than content is edited. For example, I recently coached a man whose initial writing was filled with sarcasm and guilt-provoking thoughts that would not get his point across, but would likely offend his intended target audience. I told him sarcasm does not sell; that he needed to say things in a different way or risk having his publisher throw it away without a second glance. He revised his work, twice, and I'm happy to report that he got the piece published! I was privileged to coach an elderly woman who had never be...

Jeff Goins, one of my favorite writing bloggers, calls it the 5-Draft Method . I call it revision, but it's all the same thing. If you're going to write a book, you are going to write it more than once before it's written. Even then, when you think you're finished, you will probably second guess yourself about it, wondering if this or that could have used more revision. You will ask yourself if you should have had it edited at least one more time. This side of the writing process tends to surprise people. Be not surprised. Whatever you have written will need to be revised again and again. Revise to the end. Then, before you second guess yourself out of publishing altogether, just publish it and move on to your next project. There is much writing to do. ~Tricia

Yes, I know it's the day after Mother's Day, but that day in my house is very busy, mainly with me on the phone with my many children, so there was no time for blogging. It's so great to hear from them all in one day! The three still at home showered me with gifts and love and we enjoyed the day together. On another of my blogs, Tuesday Theology , I shared a story about a heart-wrenching experience that many moms will understand. I've had quite a bit of response to that blog post and I thought I'd share it here, too. In one of my Helpful Quotes for Writer s on TheTotalWriter.com , I tell my students to weave feelings into their writing. This featured blog post shows exactly what I mean by that. Write well today. ~Tricia