To many reading this blog post, this may sound pretty obvious, but structure matters. And here's the thing I've learned over the course of my experience in school, getting myself through college, and moving into the teaching world: Structure matters, more than people think; but it can also be a lifeline to those struggling to generate ideas. 

Allow me to explain. 

When I was in school, although I loved writing, and reading was my favorite escape, I struggled when it came to writing papers. Did anyone notice me struggling? Probably not. I hid it well. However, every time I received a prompt to write a five paragraph essay, I went through varying levels of panic before I started writing. And this happened every. single. time. So how did I get past this anxiety? 

I started to look for patterns. I started looking more closely at the prompts I was given. 

Now, most teachers will break a five paragraph paper down like this:

• Paragraph 1: Introduction
• Paragraph 2: Body Paragraph 1 (if you get a really good teacher, they might explain that you should have your "better" argument here)
• Paragraph 3: Body Paragraph 2 (again, that really good teacher might tell you that your "good" argument goes here)
• Paragraph 4: Body Paragraph 3 (and that really good teacher might tell you that your "best" argument goes here)
• Paragraph 5: Conclusion
  • That really good teacher could tell you that by structuring your body paragraphs in the better, good, best order, you are keeping your reader's engagement throughout your writing, hooking them with your second best idea so they'll want to read through your good idea, and then hooking them once again with your best idea when they might otherwise start to lose interest. This is all great stuff. 

​Now, to a kid who struggles with writing anxiety, even if this information is laid out on the whiteboard with some decent descriptions, this could all seem like gibberish, as it did to me. A kiddo with this kind of anxiety may spend so much cognitive effort trying to figure out the formula for writing their perfect paper that actually generating ideas, let alone getting words on the page, can become a daunting, near impossible task. Even if they have the potential to write really good stuff. Even if they understand how compound and complex sentences work (we'll talk about this another time).

By the time I got into my junior year (and my last year of high school), I knew I had to crack the code somehow. I knew I wanted to go to college, and that I was likely going to have to suffer through endless paper writing in my higher education. So that close looking I did became really close looking. This is a process that developed over the course of my junior year, into college, through college, through publishing my first book, and into my teaching career. It was really when I started to see that same panic on my own students' faces that I realized I could apply how I now understood structure to their learning. 

Here is how I like to lay it out:

• Paragraph 1: Introduction
  • Sentence 1: What do you want to talk about? 
  • Sentence 2: Why do you want to talk about it? (Why is it important?)
  • Sentences 3 - 5 (Depending on grade/skill level): What do you have to say about this thing? (Sneak peek - what are your readers going to be reading about?)
  • Final Sentence: What do you hope to achieve from writing this? What should your readers gain from your paper?
• Paragraph 2: Better
  • Sentence 1: Transition sentence. Since this is the first thing you have to say about your topic, introduce it as such. 
  • Sentence 2: Why are you saying this? (Why is it important?)
  • Sentences 3-5 (Depending on grade/skill level): What is there to say about this thing? (What does the research say? OR What are your opinions? OR What details support your claim? - all of these questions would be filtered out depending on the type of writing they're doing).
  • Final Sentence: What are you trying to achieve by writing about this piece? What should your readers understand at this point?

Starting to recognize a pattern here? I did!

• Paragraph 3: Good
  • Repeat the same structure and questions from paragraph 2. With your transition sentence, switch up your transition word to support which idea you're talking about now.
• Paragraph 4: Best
  • Repeat the same process again, here.
• Paragraph 5: Conclusion
  • Sentence 1: What did you talk about in this paper? 
  • Sentence 2: Why is it important? Why did you want to talk about it?
  • Sentence 3 - 5: What were your key points and major supporting details?
  • Final Sentence: What are your concluding thoughts? What should your reader understand at this point? Should their minds be changed in any way? Why?

Of course, providing even this much breakdown for the structure can still leave a student feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand. Some parents (or other teachers) would argue that by breaking it down at a sentence level, I was "giving away the whole farm." But what I learned was that doing this allowed many of my students to get past their anxiety over having to write a paper, and actually allowed them to get their ideas on the page.

Now,  some of my students would look at all this broken down information and spiral even further, thinking that the more information they see on the board, the more work they're going to have to do. 

This is where interactive examples saved the day. 

When I had this information up on the board, I always walked through it step by step with my students. Still, however, I'd often see that same familiar look of white hot panic on many of their faces. At this point, I would say, "Let me show you. Everyone, get out a piece of paper. We're going to take some notes." Groans, of course, because few kiddos enjoy taking notes as much as I do. 

Once everyone had their pencils ready, I would come up with a paragraph with them. "Okay, guys. Let's pick a topic. I want to write about... taking your dog to the vet for regular check ups. That's my first sentence." At this point, I liked to reiterate that the most important thing is putting the words on the page. You can always rewrite and edit, but ONLY if you have words already there to work with. So often, I would actually just write whatever it was I was thinking about as I was trying to convey this information to them. 

I'm writing my paper about the importance of taking your dog to the vet for their regular checkups. 

"Now, class. Let's talk. Why am I writing about this? Why is this important?" Most often, I'd get a few brave souls who raised their hands and gave me reasons. Then, we'd write it together. 

Taking your dog to the vet regularly is an important part of keeping your dog healthy and happy. 

"Great, class. Why? What are some benefits to taking your dog to the vet regularly?" Again, I'd get some hands up, often a little bit more this time. 

"Awesome. Let's write it." 

When dogs are seen by their vets on a regular basis, they can receive important vaccinations that can help keep them from getting sick. They can have their bodies checked to make sure they're healthy, and they can get a happier, more attentive owner because you now know your dog is healthy and happy (or whatever that final reason would be. Some kids might say because the dog gets to have a treat, and for a starting point, that's okay!). 

As I went through this process, I had my students write my example with me. This did a few things: 1. It kept them engaged long enough to get the explanation. 2. It broke the ice. They could write their paper. They were already writing mine. 3. It allowed them to see and experience my brainstorming process alongside me, which then helped tremendously when they had to move on to writing on their own. 

The same process can be applied - as far as I've experienced - to really any situation or writing format. Need to write five PAGES instead of five paragraphs? Easy. Just go through the process, but instead make those sentences into paragraphs. You can always add more detail, find better research, better explain your thought processes. The hardest part for many is just getting started. Knowing what to say. Knowing what path to follow. And having a thorough understanding of structure helps, a ton.

I hope you found today's entry helpful in some way. I personally love writing about my teaching days, as I loved teaching. I loved finding new ways to engage my students, and teach them about things in ways that made the learning fun and more meaningful for them. Interested in reading more writing related content? Check back next weekend, or sign up for my email list (sign up form located at the bottom of my home page) so you don't miss any new posts. 

If you've been following this blog or my Instagram posts, you might have gleaned that I'm pretty passionate about all things writing. This passion started at an early age, and my love of books and stories has continued to blossom and grow as I do. But! That growth would have been much less achievable if it weren't for some pretty huge fundamental groundwork I had to lay first, and it all started in high school.

To be honest, I don't remember much about my English classes in middle school or elementary school. I remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins and Over the Mountain in fifth grade, but I moved around so much that all those years of schooling (and the curriculum being in different places in each school I attended) that those years tend to blend together in my memory.

However, once I got to high school, things settled down a bit; and I was able to attend all three years of high school (I graduated my junior year, so I didn't get that last year), and I learned a TON about domain specifics in each of my classes. 

Particularly, I learned a lot about language and story structure in my English classes. I kind of gravitated to English naturally, as I already had a passion for reading and writing; but I was able to learn some really cool things that I was able to use as I went through college, started teaching English, and even took into my own writing career. I'd like to share some of those things with you today.

1. Structure
When kids (and adults) learn they have to write a paper that's however many pages long, they often freeze up, so intimidated by the length or the topic that they struggle to even get a single word on the page, let alone get their creative ideas flowing. I was the same way for a while, especially in my early schooling years. However, as I studied the requirements for the papers I had to write in high school, I really started to pay attention to the formulas that all writing has.

I learned a way to focus first on the skeletal structure for my papers (or stories), which freed up a lot of mental load for me to then begin generating ideas and enriching my papers and stories.

Doing the same thing for my stories helps keep me from getting stuck in my drafts. I addressed this idea a bit with plot structure in one of my recent posts, but I really do fall back on the structure of my story when I feel stuck. I think... Okay, my character has just gone through their ordeal and are now on the other side of it. I need to start getting things toward the end. What is my falling action going to look like? 

One truly amazing thing about really familiarizing myself with structure as a guide to allow creative flow to happen was that I was able to teach my students these structures. Doing so, in turn, allowed them to create beautiful, well crafted papers with citations, or stories with clear sequencing and ever-improving descriptions. I had an eighth grade class in particular in which most of my students were writing senior or college level papers by December. Oh I was so proud!

All it takes is a bit of analysis. I'll write specifically about these structures in the future, but this is just one of the things I learned from high school, and I'd like to share a little bit about the others before this post gets too long.

2. Basics.
General, I know. But learning the basics: conflict, power shifts, obstacles, and resolutions made a big difference in the way I understood writing, as well as the way I was able to teach writing so my own students could understand it. And yes, these elements most obviously appear in narrative texts, but they also come up in informational texts. It just looks different. 

The big thing that helped me teach these elements was learning how to explain it in different terms. If students (like me) stared blankly up at the front of the classroom when terms like "internal conflict" came up, I knew it was time to break it down in a different way. So I'd strip away all the complication and explain it by drawing stick figures on the board, or explain the whole thing using characters from my students' favorite movies. Being able to think about these terms in a different way was extremely helpful in my teaching, but it was also helpful in getting me to remember what these things might look like in my writing.

3. Sentences, baby!
Learning to understand syntax and the different kinds of sentences and their purposes was huge in getting me to be a better teacher and a better writer. Looking at how sentences are actually structured helps me a ton, as does varying my sentence length and structure, which allows my work to have a more organic feel to it. 

I always loved when I could explain sentence types and structures to my students in a way that they were able to understand take into their own writing. 

4. Adjectives
Want to enrich your writing? Describe! This topic - like many English language topics - was one I loved getting into with my students. You could write, "The man wore a hat." OR, you could write, "The distinguished, tall, wrinkled man with a long, wiry silver beard wore a tattered silken top hat."

I like to remember the lessons I taught my students when I'm in my rewriting phase and everything feels choppy and short. I like to envision what my characters are seeing and hearing, and then I try to bring what I imagine to life with descriptive words. 

Now, I also like to remember that the words I write matter, and you definitely can have too much description. This is a great thing to remember as I'm putting together my questionnaire for my beta readers once each book has been finished. Are the descriptions believable? Were there any areas where there was too much or too little description?

That's all I'll share for now, but there are SO many things I learned in school that I still apply in my writing today. Stay tuned for more!

Whether you're writing a story, a research paper, or an email, these kinds of things help a ton. You can create a beautiful piece of writing if you first have the ability to see what it's going to look like and follow up with the questions you need to get your ideas on the page. ​

Hello everyone! I apologize that I didn't post last week! Things have been kind of crazy with work as the school year starts up, and I spent much of my weekend playing KickStarter catch up and spending time with the family. Let's get into it, shall we?

Everybody's got something(s) that they tend to gravitate toward in their writing. Today, I'm going to share with all of you some of my absolute favorite things that I like to write into my stories.

Trials and Obstacles
Vague, right? But simply put, there's not much of a story if no one's struggling. As for the trials and obstacles I tend to write the most? I write a lot about my characters being injured and having their travels delayed that way. I write about emotional trials - usually that involve some family ordeal. I'm also a huge fan of characters having to make sacrifices and heavy decisions.

Varying Levels of Darkness
I'm a huge fan of including the battle between light and darkness in my stories, but I absolutely love to explore the darkness side of things. Is there an ultimate evil? Is it tangible or intangible? Is it everywhere? I love to write about (and create) mythical creatures, ghosts, and I love to explore the concept of the darkness being everywhere. The spookier the better!

A Character's Darkest Hour
This is where I've had some of my readers that know me check up on me. I think when writing a character's darkest hour, their lowest moment, it needs to really feel dark. And what that darkness is depends on where the character's weaknesses, fears, and troubles lie. I've written about torture. I've written about different kinds of loss. And I always write about fear and doubt. Why do I write these moments to be so dark? My characters grow throughout the course of their journey, and these really difficult, dark moments make the light bits seem that might brighter and allow for those characters to grow all the more. 

Dreams
I also write a lot about dreams. I've always loved to explore the meaning of dreams and the idea that dreams connect your subconscious to something greater than yourself. I will often use dreams in my stories as a way for characters to connect with a greater force (gods, the universe, whatever it may be). This manifests sometimes in visions, or even in intuitions that something isn't quite right. 

There are many other things I love to explore in my writing: Friendship, family relationships, destiny vs. free will, and so on, but the things listed above are a few things that I've noticed I pretty much always gravitate to in my writing. I hope you enjoyed! 

I'm often asked how I make time for everything I'm chasing after: Work, my writing, editing, graphic design, marketing, and most importantly, motherhood. Well, I have a pretty specific system to ensure I'm making enough time for it all. 

First, I regularly evaluate my goals and priorities. I consider where I want to spend most of my time. In a typical week, this is my list:

1. Work. We're living off my income right now, so work has to be a top priority. Plus, I really love my job.
2. Family. It's so important to me that I get quality time with my husband and my little man every day. 
3. Writing, editing, design, and marketing prep. I make some time for these things every single day. 
4. Fun stuff. Walks, games, reading, and watching movies.

So, how do I make time for all of this? 
My mornings are time for family. We're up at 6 AM most days, which means we have plenty of time to have breakfast and go for a nice long walk, then my husband takes the baby so I can get to work. I work most days from home, so I'm usually able to take my lunch break to try and get the baby down for his nap. Then, it's back to work. When I finish work, we have a playtime and do dinner as a family, then it's bath time and bedtime routine for the little one.

After he goes to bed for the night, I take 30 minutes to an hour every day for my writing tasks. Depending on where I am in my publishing process, I may use this time for editing or designing my graphics for marketing. I also use a bit of this time every day to prep my social media posts. After I finish with that, I usually have an hour or two to hang with my husband before bed. On the weekends, I often get a little bit of extra writing time during my baby's nap times to write and do post prep. If I have something super important - a big work project, a family event, or our regular Friday night scary movie night - then I schedule a little bit less writing time that day.

Do I ​feel burnout from this schedule?
Usually, no. Because I work on my writing and other projects in short bursts (an hour or less at a time), I'm able to keep up some pretty good stamina. It also helps that I'm super passionate about my author endeavors, and my husband is incredibly supportive. Anytime I need a bit more writing time, he figures out a way for me to make that happen. 

What challenges do I face?
When things get busy, when I have a big project I'm working on and I'm nearing my deadline - especially toward my release dates - things feel a little bit scrambled. I'm really careful about blocking out time for my kiddo, but it kind of never feels like enough.

Does my writing stay on my mind all day?
As with anything I get excited or passionate about, yes. My writing does linger in my thoughts. To make sure I'm as focused and productive at work as I can be, I have a few strategies I use.

First, when I start my work day, I take a few minutes to look at my schedule for the day. I look at everything I have to get done for work, and then make a list of everything that's on my mind that's not work related. Then I mark on my schedule in the evening that I'll make time for that thing then. That helps a lot. 

Second, nearly all of my writing related things are done in the evenings after my son goes to bed. This is super helpful in keeping on task with work, because most of my excitement comes after my writing session is finished for the day, when the ideas are flowing. 

This brings me to the next question I get.

Does all of this keep me up at night? 
Honestly, yeah. Sometimes it does. I've always had trouble sleeping anyway, so if something's on my mind, yes. I'm up, especially when my writing happens so close to bedtime. Thankfully, it usually just takes pulling up my phone and writing a quick note about what's on my mind before I'm able to get to sleep.

What scheduling troubles do you run into? How do you make time to chase your dreams?

Want more writing related content? Check back next weekend for another post! 

Note: My upcoming release is set to come out in hardcover at the end of September, and its book launch and sequel production KickStarter is running now! If you're interested in getting some cool book merch (designed and created by yours truly), early release paperback or e-book, check it out! KickStarter will be running until August 22nd. 
www.kickstarter.com/projects/boundbooklaunch/bound-book-launch-and-sequel-production