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Showing posts from May, 2015

Summer Writing Coach Opportunity

  A six week long writing one-on-one coaching to help middle school students "Build Strong Stories." How it works: I will coach mostly through e-mail, but can tailor other methods such as phone calls and Skype as the student needs and circumstances allow. Who : Kids ages 12 to 14 What we'll be doing : Together, we will learn how to build stories from their basements to their unique interior decorating. Using the theme "Building Strong Stories," I will personalize my coaching to best teach the foundational elements of storytelling such as point of view, plot, and the concept of showing vs. telling, but we will also spend time exploring the individual style elements of writing that will differ from writer to writer. When : June 22nd - Aug. 1st What makes my coaching unique :  It's not a class. I'm not a teacher figure. Because I'm seventeen years old, I am close enough to the student's age that I can understand t

A Writer: A Witness for Stories

I Have Found the Most Beautiful Book in the World

     My vintage book collection slowly grows larger and larger as I find little treasures through my shopping. At garage sales, the best books are jammed between the bottom seams of a cardboard box. At goodwill, they are covered with discarded Legos, broken zippers, and the accumulation of dust from dozens of attics.      I don't buy every book I find.      There has to be a reason, a purpose for why I purchase it. Being vintage or even an antique isn't a big enough reason for me to take it home and place it next to my highly valued Chronicles of Narnia collection or 1860 copy of Samuel Greene's First Lessons in Grammar .      Sometimes, I find vintage copy of a book I loved as a child. Sometimes, I find a book symbolic to me as a writer like a old dictionary or thesaurus.  These are neat because they show a snapshot of the English language at a certain time in the past.      But, this book. This one was different.      I didn't find it in a box. I

My Writing Essentials

                   I've heard that T.S. Eliot was a night writer, that C.S. Lewis was a daytime writer, that Victor Hugo drank coffee, that Jane Austin drank tea, and that Ernest Hemingway wrote standing up. As a writer, I have my own habits and quirks. Certain environments help me best, and I've learned to pay attention to what those are. These authors didn't write when and where they did unless it helped them write better. Learn what helps you.   Places I Write Sometimes at my desk in my room The kitchen table A large leather chair in our family room The floor Barnes and Noble Teahouse Coffee Shop Songs I Listen To Roundtable Revival--Lindsey Sterling Captain America The Winter Soldier Soundtrack Divergent Soundtrack Piano Guys Owl City Anthem Lights My Necessities Music Sticky Notes (of various sizes) My favorite pen A binder (each project has a different one) Coffee or tea Food I Eat/Drink Earl Grey Te