The Stories We Don't Tell

By David E. Sharp

My son and I were checking out at a Walgreens recently. The checker scanned my small selection of purchases in silence. Two cans of chicken noodle soup. One bottle of children's chewable Pepto-Bismal tablets. One bottle of blue Powerade. She offered me a frown and said, "Somebody's not feeling well."

Of course, she was right. We'd stopped into the Walgreens on our way home from school where I had just checked my son out of the nurse's office. But I hadn't said any of this to the sympathetic checker. She had deduced the story connecting all the everyday items we'd brought to her.

How many stories can you find in this picture?

Turning Up The Heat

by Ronda Simmons

There are times for every writer when the work gets bogged down and writing becomes a chore.


We've all been there, but how do we move past it? "Go where the heat is." These are words of wisdom from Trai Cartwright (she'll be at the NCW conference, by the way) and useful advice when you don't know how to get yourself out of the mire.

Rabid Racoons . . . Exit Stage Left

By Eleanor Shelton

A friend of mine is an award-winning playwright. She's also an experienced teacher. I received a text from her last year:

Friend: Help, I need one more person to sign up for a weekend intensive playwriting class. Please let it be you!

Me: I'm a novelist, not a playwright. I need backstory, exposition, and sentence structure.

Friend: How important is great dialogue and rising action to your story?

She nailed me. 

Liverwurst and Gingersnaps

by Laura Mahal

With the 2018 NCW Conference right around the corner, I figured I’d write a Top Ten list of Copyediting Techniques You Must Master, addressing the trends I see: overused words and phrases, commonly misspelled words, inconsistencies within scenes, and so on. 

But when it comes down to it, there is only one rule I unfailingly follow.

NCW Moving to New Location

By Ronda Simmons

The Northern Colorado Writers has just announced it's new location: Charlotte, North Carolina. Along with the move will come a name change, The North Carolina Writers.

The Queen City Welcomes NCW!

Showering: A Gift That Gives and Gives

By Jason Meadors

I met with my writers' group recently. Not MY writers' group, but they've accepted me so I can claim membership. It's a cool group. I was in a group in the '90s, but it was a group that sucked your creative soul until complete desiccation of imagination was achieved. My will to live was nearly drained.

This group is not THAT group. The writers are supportive and encouraging. They are engaging minus the saccharine Pollyanna glaze. Interesting outlooks, quality perspectives, and solid advice leave me energized and inspired.

Writing Hygge

By Ronda Simmons

Have you got the winter blues? Are you struggling with productivity? Maybe it's time to introduce a little hygge to your life.

Hygge is one of those foreign words that just doesn't translate into English. Pronounced “hue-ga,” it's a Scandinavian concept that refers to a feeling of coziness and comfort. 

Denmark is the happiest country on earth for good reason, the Danes embrace all things hygge. Hygge can be associated with candles, warm knitted socks, fireplaces, and good friends, but it is so much more than that. 

It incorporates the concepts of wholeness, awareness, and gratitude. To be hygge means to have a conscious appreciation for and enjoyment of the present moment.

Turns out, it can also help our writing practices, here's how: