April Davila - Author
You never get a second debut novel. These are words I remember hearing at writing conferences, and from teachers in my graduate program: you don't get a second debut novel. I kind of dismissed them at the time. I mean, duh. You only get one … [Continue reading] about You Never Get A Second Debut Novel
There are stories that are entertaining, beautifully written - and entirely forgettable. The minute I'm done with them, I never think of them again. And then there are stories with emotional resonance. The ones that haunt me. My mind comes back to … [Continue reading] about Cultivating Emotional Resonance
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining Zibby Owens (creator of the Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books Podcast) as part of an Instagram Live series she was hosting while stuck at home (you can see the interview here). It was fun, and I'm … [Continue reading] about Present Tense As A Zoom Lens
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: writers read. Adjust accordingly. But what does it really mean to read like a writer? What do we do differently as writers browsing pages? To answer these questions, I'd like to share an excerpt with … [Continue reading] about How to Read When You Want to Write Better
If you've been following along with the blog, you know that, from time to time, I like to change things up. Over the course of the 10+ years I've been working on this blog, there have been a lot of changes. Some have been gradual, like shifting … [Continue reading] about Changes Afoot
I like to edit in split screen. It allows me to reference things I've put down in other chapters, like place or character descriptions. But when I have two screens open like that I tend to accidentally click away from the section I'm actually working … [Continue reading] about Lock Your Editor in Scrivener
Two hundred thousand years ago in the late Pleistocene era, a relatively small number of great white sharks from the waters around Australia broke away and migrated to the northwest region of the Pacific. Over millennia of isolation, this … [Continue reading] about Great White Sharks