OH, MY EARS (AND GENRE EXPECTATIONS)!
On Saturday, I decided to make some additions to my Christmas-music library. As I browsed, I saw a listing for this song, a version of...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Dec 10, 20203 min read
BLOOD = KIND OF IMPORTANT
Over this past week, I've started donating plasma. Unlike when you donate blood, the machine takes out the blood, extracts the plasma...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Dec 3, 20202 min read
SKILL IS (OFTEN) INVISIBLE
Yesterday, one of my LinkedIn contacts shared this picture: As much as I love actual Christmas trees, I love this idea, too. It's amazing...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 30, 20202 min read
SPEAKING OF HOLIDAY DISASTERS ...
I suppose I asked for this one with all my stories about holiday disasters last week. On Thanksgiving, my roommates and I put everything...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 24, 20202 min read
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
How I probably looked under my mask I think we've all heard horror (?) stories of crazy things people have seen and overheard at Walmart....
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 20, 20201 min read
14 CLICHÉ-BUSTING FANTASY NOVELS AND SERIES
After all our exploration of fantasy this week, you might reasonably ask, "Well, are there any fantasy writers who break the stereotypes...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 19, 20201 min read
6 RESOURCES FOR FRESH FANTASY CREATURES
A lot of our stereotypical fantasy races/creatures come from European mythology and folklore, particularly Greek, English, and Norse:...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 16, 20204 min read
8 THINGS FANTASY WRITERS NEED TO QUIT DOING. RIGHT NOW.
Years ago, I started noticing an alarming trend in fantasy. As one of my English professors commented when we were discussing it: "It's...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 9, 20201 min read
THE ONLY 3 THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER IN CHARACTER NAMES
Today's post is partly inspired by one of my favorite Peanuts strips. I've silently (or not) echoed Lucy's thoughts more than once! There...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Nov 4, 20201 min read
WRITING-PROMPT WEDNESDAY: THAT'S A SUPERPOWER?
While I was teaching sixth-grade history, my fellow teachers and I started talking one day about weird "superpowers" we have. Here are...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 27, 20204 min read
WHAT WRITERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PTSD
As writers, we put our characters through the wringer. Sometimes it happens "onscreen"; other times, it happens long before the book...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 26, 20205 min read
WHAT IS LOVE? PART 2
Pinterest, I'm finding, is one of the most versatile and useful writing tools we authors have at our disposal. I'm not talking about just...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 22, 20203 min read
THAT'S CHEATING! (OR IS IT?)
Recently, I re-stumbled across one of my favorite Pinterest posts (pardon the bad spelling, etc.): 🤣 This is an excellent example of...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 20, 20203 min read
VENI, VIDI . . . WHAT-CI?
I'm (tongue-in-cheek) guessing this was sculpted right at the moment when the subject stubbed his toe. This afternoon, I introduced one...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 16, 20202 min read
WHAT IS LOVE? PART 1
As promised, today we'll start looking at aspects of healthy romantic relationships so we can portray them accurately in our writing. Of...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 15, 20203 min read
THAT'S NOT LOVE
This past weekend, the current West End (?) production of The Phantom of the Opera streamed for a day or two from London. I watched part...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 12, 20203 min read
SOMETHING FISHY THIS WAY COMES
In my church, instead of the same person preaching every week, members of the congregation take turns preparing and giving talks....
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 9, 20201 min read
CREATING A FANTASY LANGUAGE? TRY THIS TIP
Besides my English-tutoring student I mentioned last week, I've also been tutoring world history and conversational French. My students...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 8, 20202 min read
WELL, *THAT* ESCALATED (SUSPICIOUSLY) QUICKLY
This story popped up in my Google News today. 😵 #whatjusthappened I don't care who you are or what your political beliefs are. That's...
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Candice Bellows, The Story Engineer
Oct 5, 20204 min read
ONE SIZE (OR FORMAT) *DOESN'T* FIT ALL
Once upon a time, I did a very silly thing and watched the movie The Lightning Thief after reading the Percy Jackson books. Then when I...
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