That’s some great advice! I would add, as a perfectionist myself, that sometimes I need to remember to have fun. Which is harder than that sounds. It’s so easy for me to get caught up with making every little sentence absolutely perfect with the right amount of foreshadowing and showing-not-telling and character motivation and all that…[Read more]

@mayajoelle – Hi Maya! I absolutely love the accountability/companionship in word wars and would definitely enjoy participating in them with you and anyone else available! Feel free to tag me when you’re available and I’ll be sure to join in when I’m able. 😉

@wolverinerm – First off, CONGRATULATIONS FOR FINISHING YOUR BOOK. *cheers* *flings confetti in the air* And secondly, wow, that sounds like an amazing story. <3 I would love to alpha-read it, and I just filled out the form on your blog. 😉

@writercatherine – Yay, that’s such an exciting moment! 😀 Hmm, that is a bit problematic. Maybe you could tell me some specific details so I can help better? About the character’s journey, where she started, how her life spiraled, and maybe some things she loves and values?

@the-inkspiller and @rusted-knight – Thank you so much for your insights! You’ve given me a lot of thorough ideas and thoughts to brainstorm over, and I really appreciate it. 🙂

(also, Rusted Knight, I love the quote in your signature.)

@chalice – Hmm, the first thing that comes to my mind is why.  Why does your character hate the world? Why does she harbor so much anger? People aren’t just born angry at everyone, so usually it’s because of some terrible thing that happened to her in the past (*coughs* tragic backstory.) And as for making her more likable, what if you made that…[Read more]

@rusted-knight – Haha, that’s a really good idea! I just might be able to use it…thanks so much for the help!

@the-inkspiller – Aaah, thank you, that was incredibly helpful!

You’re right, my battle is more like an epic scale military confrontation. I confess I’m rather plot-orientated, so I hadn’t given much thought to what the characters…[Read more]

@eitan –

Library is Sifria, which is a pretty new word, that was invented in the 20th century. The word for school however is much more older, and probably was in use in Jesus’ time. It referred to a Bible school (Bible = book, in the era’s context) for children, and was different from a Talmud house, where teenagers and adults learned the Jewis…

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@eitan –

In fact we have contractions in Hebrew! For example, the correct form to say ”of you / yours / your” is the separate word shelcha, but in speech we usually contract it to the suffix -shcha. The correct way to say school is beyt sefer (which literally means ”book-house”, by the way), but usually we pronounce it Betsefer. However, unl…

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@olivia – My pleasure! Glad I could be of service. 🙂

@eitan –

Sorry, I didn’t understand the question… And nowhere I find the meaning of ”learning contractions”… Can you ask it in other words? 🙂

Contractions are a way to shorten words, like “didn’t” instead of “did not” or “I’m” instead of “I am”. I think English is the only language with them…[Read more]

*raises hand* I’m one of those people who couldn’t help themselves and have already read through the entire book. xD Probably was not the wisest decision, since I likely forgot a lot of the finer details, but again, I couldn’t help it.

I think the main reason why I wanted to root for the trio was because they faced a lot of cruel, unfair…[Read more]

@eitan – Hi, and welcome! It’s so cool that you live in Israel. God willing, I’m going to visit it this summer and I’m so excited! (Random question, if you don’t mind: what was learning contractions in English like for you? I’ve always wondered, because I think English is the only language with them.)

(tagging @olivia so she can see this) – Also,…[Read more]

@mgtask – What a great topic! I’ve gotten so many insights based on everyone’s responses. Along the lines of other countries/cultures getting represented, I’ve always wanted to see more based off of Russia (being the largest country in the world, there’s so many opportunities), lesser-known European countries like Croatia, and little South Asian…[Read more]