What's That Smell?
Layering Sensory Detail into Your Story

I was watching a reality TV show the other day–I think it was Ten Years Younger–when a cosmetic dentist told the makeover patient that he was using gas on her to take the edge off her pain. He wasn't going to put her under general anesthesia because "when your eyes are open you feel things LESS."

Why would that be true? Think about it.

The Write Process for You

Like any writer I want to know how other writers and creatives do what they do and I want to know why they choose a particular process. I wonder how they get in creative flow and effectively communicate their vision in words or form that entertains and inspires. As a writer, how can I synthesize or adapt some part of another's creative process to help me write more fluently from creative flow. As a creativity coach, how can I use what I've learned to inspire and help others improve their own process?

Mmmmmelinda's Conference Homily: The care and feeding of your fellow writers and editors and agents.

There few things I enjoy more than a good writer's conference--seeing old friends, making new ones and hanging in the halls. It's like going back to school, only better because there's usually a bar, occasionally decent food and often opportunities to learn about interesting new publishing trends, business buzz or fresh writing techniques. But I didn't always feel so positive . . .

Can You Produce Like the Prolific Pros?

Imagine that you can finally finish the book and produce several more a year like the Prolific Pros and still have a life--maybe even a much better one.

Enhance Your Writing and Your Life with Past Life Regression

He has Woody Allen's delivery and kind of looks like him too. But world renown psychiatrist Brian L. Weiss, M.D. isn't a comic genius--in this life, anyway. He's the dean of past life regression therapy.

For the Greater Good: Writing Issue-Themed Romance

People often ask romance authors why we write what we do. Depending on the audience, perhaps we go literary with, "I write because I must." To another we might wax romancy, "I'm in love with love and think the world needs more of it."

MMMMelinda's Awesome Pitch Process (PDF)

All pitchers on deck for the warm-up! It's conference time again and the editors and agents are waiting for your Flawless Pitch. Are you ready?

KICK START YOUR CREATIVITY: What Bikers Can Teach About Authenticity of Expression

I love to write about people of all ages who allow or make themselves to "just do it", whatever that may be in terms of pushing the personal performance envelope in a positive, sometimes difficult, growth promoting way. In order to write authentically about such characters and their personal stories, I need to meet, observe and interact with all sorts of people as well as have adventures myself. So, when my brother handed me two tickets to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, I eagerly dusted off my earplugs and hit the road with 35,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle riders bound for the Laughlin, Nevada annual Harley River Run.

The Ghosts Books Under the Bed and Other Undead Energy Stealers (Published June 05 FF&P Out of This World Newsletter)

How many times have you heard an author say her first book was banished to the dust bunny kingdom under the bed? Some even admit to having more than a small library of unpublished and unfinished work beneath the place they spend a third of their lives. Yours may be on the top shelf way back in the closet under the stack of parachute pants that may come back any day . . .