First Ever Product Review Video: Baron Fig Confidant Notebook
I’ve had the thought for a long time that I should make product review videos about the tools I use in my writing, so today—finally—I uploaded my first ever product review video! If it receives a fair amount of views and people seem to like it, I’ll make more videos about the other tools I use in my writing.
This video is a review of the Baron Fig Confidant notebook, which I use as my day-to-day journal. Baron Fig is a relatively new company in the world of notebooks, and the only reason I know about them is because I randomly won one of their notebooks in a giveaway contest a third-party website was hosting. But since then, I’ve come to really enjoy this notebook.
When There Isn’t Enough Time for Your Passions
Our apartment is so small that I had to squeeze my desk (acquired for free from moving neighbors) into the narrow space between our bed and the bedroom wall, which means I use our bed as an office chair. …
Editor’s Advice: “Jazz Your Verbs”
When author Brian Doyle visited the campus of BYU–Idaho last December, he shared stories and a lot of dynamite writing advice. Much of that advice has stayed with me, but with NaNoWriMo 2016 behind us and plenty of editing ahead of us, one piece of Doyle’s advice feels especially applicable: “Jazz your verbs.” …
Insights gained from my husband’s anxiety
Photo by Sarah L. Robison Photography
I don’t pretend to know what every case of anxiety looks like. But having been with Brian for a couple of years, I’ve experienced with him in a small way what life is like for someone with anxiety. He did not know that he had anxiety until he was in his 20s and a counselor told him. So most of his life has been lived without medication and unaware that what he was experiencing was not like everyone else. …
What I Learned from NaNoWriMo 2016
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and for those of you who participated in NaNoWrimo, I hope you had a fantastic experience and were able to meet your writing goal for the month. …
Book Review: “I’m Proud of You” by Tim Madigan
A while ago, my dad lent me a book called I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers. It’s a memoir by Tim Madigan, an award winning journalist who was sent by his newspaper to interview Fred Rogers, the host of the legendary children’s television show Mr. Rogers. What Tim Madigan found was that Fred Rogers was in real life the kind, gentle, loving man who children saw on TV. But more than that, Tim found an unexpected friendship with Fred that lasted until Fred’s death in 2005. …
In Defense of Handwriting
Recently, one of my co-workers beckoned me and another coworker over to his desk where he showed us a commercial for the new Microsoft Surface Studio. I was amazed by its processing power, vivid screen, and intimate interface. If there is anything more astonishing than technology, it is how fast our technology advances.
After watching the video, I went back to my desk, where, off to the side, lay my writing notebook and one of my fountain pens. They looked a lot less cool than they had three minutes earlier. …
Tips for Your First NaNoWriMo
Last Friday, I went with my younger sister to the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) kickoff party for our local NaNo chapter. They are doing a Harry Potter theme this year and had creative ways of implementing it, like “first years” getting an altered Hogwarts acceptance letter applicable to NaNoWriMo, Ferrero Rocher chocolate in golden wrappers decorated as Snitches, Dark Mark cookies, and a cauldron of ice at the drinks table that had the ingredients for butterbeer. …
NaNoWriMo Projects for Poets
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is just around the corner. All your writing friends are researching and brainstorming for the novels they will be writing, and you want to participate too. But there’s just one problem: you’re a poet, not a novelist. Of course, you’ll get to celebrate National Poetry Month in April, but that is still a long way off. …