Read this on galpod.com. I'm sure all five of you reading this are dying to know how the deliberate practice went. My skill for last week was to colour descriptions based on the character's personality, mood, etc. The good news is that I practised this every weekday, which is good because I had kids about. I described the coffee shop I was working at from my MC's point of view when he was in a good mood and when he was in a bad mood. I described another character from the poi

Read this on galpod.com. If you've been anywhere NEAR productivity blogs, books, or gurus, you know that deliberate practice is all the rage lately. Deliberate practice consists of picking a skill and working on it, deliberately, consistently, with feedback. A couple of months back, I made a list of skills that writers should have. I've put it on the bottom of this post as well :) To improve my writing skills, I want to work on each of these skills. But, I can't work on all o

Read this on galpod.com. Unsurprisingly, I'm reading a lot of books about writing lately. I consider it to be an investment, and these books help me a lot. This book was no exception. It's useful and clear and gets the point across. It's a manual. Most of the advice in it I don't think should wait for editing. I know that when I write, I try to write well on the first go. Sure, there will be edits later, but I don't expect to have to re-write the majority of the book. So I co

Read this on galpod.com. Not so much a story, but a scene I wrote a few months ago in response for a writing prompt. I'm working on my editing skills now, so I went back to it today and worked on it. Would love to hear feedback! :) “Mom! Mooooom!!!” Lucy looked up from the romance novel she was reading. She was sitting at the dining room table having a little evening drink with her guilty-pleasure romance when her 13-year-old daughter burst into the house. “I’m in the dining

I've been following a writer's blog called Terrible Minds. It's funny, but I mostly follow it because the author, Chuck Wendig, gives some fantastic writing prompts. The latest one was this. He posted 10 randomly-generated titles, and we had to pick one and write a story about it. Here's mine, and if you click through you can see others' stories. Enjoy! “For Claus’ sake! Can no one in this house hear me?” The two teenagers sitting at the kitchen table looked up. Papers and co

Read this on galpod.com. I love words. Specifically, I love the way that the meaning of a word can change over time and in different contexts. I find myself thinking of the origins and meanings of English words quite often. Because my first language is not English (it's Hebrew, in case you're wondering), I sometimes make connections that native English speakers may have made when they were children. Today I want to take you on two such word trails. They are not entirely unrel

Hello! I'm experimenting with blogging every day. Because I'm very new to this, I need your help. Please take a minute to drop me a line and let me know what you think. I will post stories, thoughts, and possibly recipes (if I'm having an off day). Here's the post for today. I'm reading a book by Twyla Tharp called The Creative Habit. She suggests that any artist needs a set of skills, and to sharpen them constantly. The idea is that you work on each skill in turn, and when y

Hello! I'm experimenting with blogging every day. Because I'm very new to this, I need your help. Please take a minute to drop me a line and let me know what you think. I will post stories, thoughts, and possibly recipes (if I'm having an off day). Here's the post for today. I'm a sucker for words. English is my second language, so I think I may give myself more permission than native speakers to ask what a word means, even if I'm only asking my dictionary app. But I also lov