Hey Everyone!
Well, my spring is off to a great start, and I’ll have even more time for writing Mayden this summer as I’ve taken time off from my mentoring work! I’m hoping for a new chapter once a week or more instead of the usual once every ten days! We will see…
Okay, so I got this message on my email, not as a comment, so I’m going to put it all for you to get my answer. I’ll keep the commenter “anon” just in case that is the preference!
Hello Robin,
My name is ANON. I recently watched the videos on youtube of you giving tips on writing and I found them most informing, and they have helped alot with the books I’m writing. I also like your story, and like the direction that is progressing. I really like Jake he seems like a great character(with or without his shirt) 
also I like Mayden, I see her as a truly three demensional character, and I like her realtionship with the magic that the twins are teaching her. I hope to see the finished article some time in the future. I was actually writing to ask you, what do you find helps with the creation of ideas for your stories also I have trouble writing beleiveable diaglogue that fits with a particluar character, if you could give me any tips that would be great.
Yours Magically, ANON
P.S.-I hope that mayden helps anna get out of that home, that poor women needs a break.
So ANON… For the most part, my stories seem to come to me. I am open to them, always looking around for ideas. Sometimes, there are too many! And sometimes, they come in dreams. I look for stories about magic because they interest me most, but I don’t like cheesy material, so I like to think of how it would be for someone pretty normal to find out 1) they are not normal and 2) that the world is not normal. I think to get really good ideas you have to think of what you like, and then think of what you want to say to the world. See if something comes from that.
Dialogue is both a skill and a gift. Skill comes in technique, and later I’ll be showing more of that. For example, some characters will ONLY say “can’t” and others only ”can not.” I’ll tag each character with a few words only they use. But I do that in later drafts. For now, I just try to “listen” to how they would say it, and consider that. If it sounds like my voice on everyone, I have to go back. I see that like painting the basic outline of what I want to paint, then going back for detailed shadowing. So just get what you want to say down first, then design an image and chose words and ways of speaking (some long sentences, some short, some full sentences, some get cut off a lot), then add it later.
Hope that helps! Hugs to all, and thanks for commenting! Makes for great fun! Robin
faris on 
Audrey Taska Hare on 
Anna on
Dear Robin,
I’ve been thinking of writing as a career for a while and I have a few questions that my language arts teacher couldn’t answer because she has never written a novel. I want to write but I’m not sure how to come up with a purpose for a novel. Should I start with short stories? How do I know/find out what my purpose is? Where is a good starting point for themes? I’d like to start keeping a journal too but I don’t know where to start. Does having a journal really help that much?
Thanks.
Hi Nadine! Thanks for writing. Was out of town so had to wait to reply. This is a question several have asked me, and it’s not an easy one to answer. I waited a long time for the first fiction “story” to come to me, and wondered if it ever would! I feel it is like a calling of sorts–almost like finding a boyfriend. You can look, but you can’t make it happen. But you can be open and looking, and getting ready by practicing writing–yes, short stories or I wrote essays for years on small subjects. They ended up being published, in fact. So practice, stay open, invite the “magic” into your world and dreams (or God, or Universe, or whatever you call the great spark of life), and then be ready when it comes to you ~ it will! I hope that helps a little.
1.What do you know about creative nonfiction? I’ve always wanted to write an autobiography and I remember watching one of the videos in which you said slices of life aren’t always enough unless the story is really compelling. How would I go about beginning an autobiography.
2. I really like writing and I want to go into creative writing when I enter college but I don’t know if I would be able to support myself with such an uncertain career. Should I pursue another career and write on the side? I know this seems like an obvious answer but I feel that if my time is consumed with another profession that I’ll never get to writing at least not fully.
Hi Nadine! Okay, first, creative non-fiction is very worthy. To begin an autobiography, you really have to find the action point, not try to tell the whole back story up front to get people going. READ a lot of autobiographies to see how it starts…start with a story, and a good one, anywhere in life! Make it a short story perhaps, to start?
As far as a career, sadly being a book writer for a living is like saying you are going to be a rock star. Can it happen, yes! Sure! Will it happen… maybe. And maybe after a long time. I still don’t make a living from my writing alone, and that is very common, especially with the current markets. However, if your job is as a writer (journalist, paid blogger, PR, etc…)you will become a better writer by doing your job, and that is something you will have to invest time in anyway. I wrote a lot of different things before books, and that experience was all worthy. So would I plan on a career writing books right off as your bread and butter? No, sadly. But would I follow the passion and make sure your studies prepare you… yes, for sure. I hope that helps.