Jessie Mullins, YA Author

I just had a conversation on Twitter with some other writers after someone told a writer she should write more nice girls instead of angry girls. My reply was, "As a recovering nice girl, there's no such thing as nice girls...only girls who learn to quiet the parts of themselves other people won't approve of." If you're a writer and thinking, "Yeah, but I have a character who is so nice, for real. She goes out of her way for other people. She's so noble and selfless and wouldn't hurt anyone blah blah blah..." Okay, I hear you. A girl or woman can be all of those things, but honestly, if everyone thinks she's "so nice," it's because she never stands up for herself. She has quieted herself and made herself smaller to fit inside this tiny box of other people's expectations. A girl or woman could volunteer at homeless shelters, be the safe place for all of her friend's woes, dress modestly, pray for world peace, ba...

As I sat in my bathtub wishing I had all the time in the world to shave my legs, cook delicious meals, spend quality time with my friends and family, keep my house clean, conquer world domination, and rearrange my Yu-Gi-Oh deck, I realized I didn't have enough hours in a day, so I'd have to pick and choose. Pretty basic realization, but us overachievers can get carried away sometimes. We're only human, and we only have twenty-four hours in a day. The struggle is real. I'll have to push off world domination for another day because family time comes first. And then I have to decide between cooking good meals or cleaning...hmm, tough choice. And these are choices our characters should have to face too. After all, they're just as human and you and I. It's actually something you should put a lot of thought into when creating your characters. Why? Because...  1. It keeps our character's consistent. If a character holds their family in highest priority, th...

You know those action scenes full of explosions, fighting, and all around danger that just...make your eyes glaze over? And then those other danger scenes that plunge you right into the action and make your heart beat faster like you're actually there? There's a key difference. There's an element of danger every writer needs to make danger scenes matter to the reader. Read about this element of danger in my post over on YATopia! Follow me on  Facebook  and  Twitter  for more bookish things.