Claire Hadleigh

 The Final Day of NanoWriMo '22:

  This is a short, difficult week for keeping up with your NanoWriMo word count.  Many are traveling, whether by car on the interstates or flying and dealing with airports, security, delayed flights and more.  For those who are home and hosting, different scenarios but still stressful.  So today's tips are simple and something you can check out when you've got a quiet moment or two. inkarnate.com This is an online tool, available in free or paid models, that allows you to create and save maps for fictional worlds.  Whether you're world-building for fantasy, science fiction, paranormal or small-town mysteries and romances, inkarnate will help you visualize and create maps to keep your worlds organized. One Look & Reverse Dictionary Reverse dictionaries are more than thesauruses - they can help you search for that illusive word that's just hovering on the periphery of your tired brain because it describes what the word represents.  Feel like you're repeating the s

  THE DREADED SLUMP Tired .   .   . hate my story . . . life sucks . . . I need chocolate . . . did I mention my story sucks? How many times have we been there?  Life interferes -- work, family issues, illness, finances.   The list goes on and on. What to do?  Break away before it swallows you whole and spits you out! Why not take a long drive to nowhere .   Yes, I said nowhere .  I’m not kidding.   If you can, get in the car and wander with no particular destination in mind.   No car?   Live in the city?   Then take a walk with no destination, open up your senses and clear your head.   The mere momentum of movement can free up your thoughts and maybe, just maybe, you'll see alternative ways to work around the slump. Japanese citizen have a thing -- "forest bathing" -- where they will spend time in forests sitting, lying down or walking.  British researchers at the University of East Anglia have found after studying 20 countries and more than 290 million people t

Stuck on Starting: Start a scene or chapter with a conversation or argument rather than a description or narrative. Why?   It gets your writing out of the starting gate quickly.   Remember: this is your draft.   It’s not the final product, and you can always go back later and adjust. This is simply a technique to get the blank page/screen filled up and your fingers moving across the keyboard. At this point momentum = accomplishment.     Another aspect   Starting with characters exchanging words draws the reader in quickly.   It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but in a few brief exchanges, aspects of the main character can be revealed. Show, don't tell. This is the opening scene from my contemporary romance, Love Long Overdue .  The main female character is Gina, and she's grabbing a quick lunch with her BFF, Julie.  *   *   * "So, did you hear about the new librarian?" "What happened to the old one?" "Helloooo?   Remember I to