You is smart. You is kind. You is important!!

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful Holiday this season!

This year as I celebrated Christmas with my family, I watched many movies. I’ve been waiting to see THE HELP because I’ve wanted to finish the book first, but when my mother-in-law brought it with her into town I couldn’t resist. And OMG it was one of the BEST movies I’ve seen in a VERY LONG time. I couldn’t peel my eyes off the screen. This movie made my heart pound out of my chest and I don’t usually cry with movies, but I did. A lot.

As I thought about THE HELP, I thought about how hard it is to stay encouraged as writers and artists. But with Aibileen now beautifully branded into my mind I will never forget her words. I'm even saying them to my children, everyday!

So when you're having doubt never forget that you is smart, you is kind, and you is important!!

Happy writing/illustrating everyone!!

Favorite Quotes

Last night I watched a great movie called, SHAOLIN. I'm a huge fan of Kung Fu movies! One because I've been in love with martial arts since I was nine. And two because I really admire the peace and serenity in the art and this movie definitely conveyed that. I heard one of the characters last night named, Cook, say this...

"I don't know any of this, all I know is it's worthless to train just the moves without the spirit." 

This line says so much to me! And when I sat down to write today, I related this with my work. 

How about you guys, has anything inspired you lately?

Happy writing everyone!

Formatting Pet Peeves

This last weekend I met up with my fabulous critique group and the discussion of formatting our manuscripts came up. 

So I thought I’d share with you VERY lovely blog readers some of the proper ways I've learned how to format my manuscript.

If you have any suggestions or input on things you’ve learned about formatting your manuscript or if you’re just knowledgeable on the subject, please DO share in the comments. It would be MUCHO appreciated!

Not very long ago I had an editor express interest in my work. So with A LOT of excitement I sent it and upon researching some of her pet peeves online, I found out that one of them was double spacing. Inside I was like NO, I didn’t format it properly?! After all the research and time I’d spent writing for the past five years, how did I not know this!?! Quickly, I figured out how to change this!

With a quick…

Select All ---> Ctrl f ---> Replace ---> Find period-space-space ---> Replace All period-space

Or if you want to change Word's sentence spacing behavior (On Windows):

Tools ---> Options ---> Spelling & Grammar ---> Settings ---> Spaces required between sentences ---> Change from "don't check" to "1"

…and voila you’ve now cut the manual task of fixing your double spaces. Double spacing was drilled into my head as a kid, but as many have said it's now just a hangover from typewriter days.

Another formatting pet peeve is the Tab Button. If you’re still using it, it’s probably not the best idea. In the fast changing world of technology e-readers are a very hot commodity— EVERYWHERE! Especially with editors and agents. The tab button isn't compatible on e-readers and with most of them reading your work on them you want to make sure to have it twinkling before their very eyes. So to rid your manuscript of indents just follow the steps below…

Select All ---> Ctrl f ---> ^t ---> Replace All

Next, click on Paragraph. Under the Indents and Spacing Tab, go to Indentation. Put Left and Right at 0". And then under Special for First Line make your paragraphs automatically indent by .5".

Hope this helps! Happy writing everyone!!