When people read my first book, BETWEEN, I usually get a message that asks, “Is there a sequel?” I’ve mostly avoided the question, because for years it’s been a complicated “Yes and no,” but today I get to say, “Yes! There is!” BETWEEN, told the story of 17-year-old Charlie as she travels through the Between to reach Ellauria in order to learn the secrets of … Continue reading Coming Soon: ELLAURIA by Megan Whitmer
It’s been a while, I know. It wouldn’t be true to say that the pandemic shut me down—I’ve been staying busy, and pretty dedicated to the self-care routines that keep my mind (and creativity) in a good place. It’s just that, with the situation we’re all facing at the moment (where 2020 is THE WORST), I couldn’t find anything useful to say. And now, almost … Continue reading It’s Time for a Pep Talk
There is something so funny to me about people who say, “I’m not creative.” Trust me, you’re creative. You don’t have a choice. It’s the way we were made. We’ve all got it in us, some of us are just more used to thinking of ourselves in that light than others. Creativity has a lot of ways of showing up in our lives. In some … Continue reading Five Ways to Spark Your Own Creativity
I interrupt my usual agenda of pep talks to bring you what is absolutely going to sound like a commercial, but I promise I haven’t been paid. It’s not an ad. It just looks like one. Here we go. Several months ago, my friend Kelsey told me about Pacemaker, which calls itself a flexible goal planner for writers and students (but check it out even … Continue reading Pacemaker.Press: A Flexible Goal Planner for Writers (and anyone else)
Here’s a thing that’s been on my mind lately. It seems like, as we get older, we stop allowing ourselves to explore new things. I hear a lot of “I’m too old for that” or “What’s the point at my age?” or “But Megan, my hip replacement is next week.” I attended a local blogger event last weekend, and even caught myself having those thoughts. … Continue reading It’s Okay to Be a Beginner AKA No One Cares About You
Remember back in January, when we talked about choosing a Word for the Year? I chose the word Go, and several of you chimed in with words of your own. The idea of a Word for the Year is that it gives you more of a focus for the year, one word to guide you as you go wherever life leads you, rather than setting … Continue reading Word for the Year: An Update!
When it comes down to it, it’s pretty hard to tell a completely original story. In the most basic sense, stories are made up of the same pieces—a protagonist with a goal, an antagonist in the way of the goal, and the journey the protagonist goes on to either succeed or fail in getting that goal. A young kid finds out he/she is magical and … Continue reading Someone Already Wrote My Book (And Other Lies You Tell Yourself)
Five years ago, I attended a writing retreat with a large group of authors who all debuted in 2014. We spent a long weekend working and writing and talking about goals. One night, we were asked to talk about where we hoped to be in five years. There were a variety of answers: I want to sell foreign rights to my work. I want to … Continue reading Celebrate the Steps
It’s time to start a new book, and I am not ready. I’m never ready. That’s the whole problem. If you ask me what I need to be ready, I can’t even tell you. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not ready. I wrote Between and its sequel without worrying about being ready. I wanted to write them, so I did. Somewhere … Continue reading I Am Not Ready.
If you read my last post about Artist Dates, you know that the whole idea of taking time to do something alone that nourishes my inner artist was a hard one for me to embrace. I was worried that it would seem selfish, or that I wouldn’t find any value in them. Sure, I enjoy my alone time, but would it necessarily make me a … Continue reading Thirty Ideas for Artist Dates
