Arden's Garden

When I was young, I was an outdoorsy, athletic kid who spent every free moment outside, digging in the dirt, climbing trees, and making messes that are so characteristic of and necessary for a child. I discovered how to dump dirt down the playset slide and separate the fine, dart particles, which stuck to the grooves of the slide, from the larger sediment. I would then collect this fine dust, mix it with water, and create 'ink'. Another classic creation of mine was the famous 'mud pie', of which my mother was not so fond. I was always climbing trees, spying on bird nests, and simply enjoying the freedom that could only be found in the high boughs.  However, as I entered my teenage years and discovered the online world, my athletic nature faded significantly. Though still an adventurer at heart, I spent most of my time indoors and, as a result, my physical health declined. Naturally, I put on some weight and my strength was not ideal.  That famous year, 2020, arrived and...

A good writer must have a solid appreciation of others' writings, and I personally love poetry. I took a poetry appreciation course as an elective in college and this poem was my favorite of all the poems we studied.  Firstly, I want to be sure to acknowledge that this poem is the work of Billy Collins, and here is a citation of the website from which I borrowed this poem:  Collins, B. (2002, February). Aimless love by Billy Collins . Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=41392 I like this poem because, when read with an air of melancholy contentment, gives me an appreciation for all the little things in my daily life with which God has blessed me. Though this poem does not mention God specifically, remember as you read it that He alone provides us with every blessing, both great and small. Open your eyes today to see His blessings <3 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

I truly believe that telling your testimony is one of the most important and crucial things you can do as a Christian. Therefore, I want to share my testimony. I tried my best to summarize it, as I can easily write for hours upon hours about my journey to and through faith. However, I may post later with more details or to speak more in depth about certain aspects. I have found that my faith journey, my story, my testimony, can be described as a struggle with doubt, among other things. For the sake of clarity, I am going to follow a sort of outline that helps me stay on topic and effectively share my testimony - an outline with the theme of doubt.  I originally wrote this version of my testimony during my mission trip over this past summer, and I shared it one night each week at chapel. I had a first draft that I used for about half the summer, but then my grandpa passed away and, suddenly, I didn't feel like my first draft was what God wanted me to share the next week. So, I rewro...

Character development is my favorite part of writing, often more rewarding than finishing a book! Having written fourteen books, I have created a lot of characters. Their levels of relatability range from surface-level aesthetic appeal to depths-of-the-soul connection, and this is generally due to how often they appear in the books and the role they play.  When I first started writing, I began character development in a very superficial way. Having had a Pinterest account at the time, I would search for "aesthetic character designs" or "character writing inspiration". This would bombard me with hundreds of pictures of people I didn't know. To be honest, for my first book, I picked an image of a girl I thought was the epitome of beauty and made her the main character, simply based on looks. That aesthetic picture of pink ribbons woven in her curly brown hair is still the first image that pops into my mind when I try to picture her.  However, I give myself grace, ...

I have used outlines for every book I've written except one, and that was merely because I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't. I HIGHLY recommend outlining before writing. Here are my thoughts:  My method of outlining has served me well for all fourteen books I've completed, but is not a standard for every writer. Therefore, please take this example with a grain of salt. If it helps someone on their writing journey, I'm happy.  When I started writing, my goal was to make 50k words, for NaNoWriMo, so my outline began with word count in mind as a priority and not plot. However, the method I developed is flexible for both factors. I'll speak more on word count later in this post.  My first outline gave me 25 chapters, and I planned to write 2k words per chapter. The outline looked like this:  Chapter # - (date it occurs - helps to keep track of days of the week and potential settings; for example, you don't want to accidentally have a church scene two chap...

Perhaps the greatest hindrance to my writing success and peace of mind is the issue of schedules. I am a HUGE planner and I LOVE making a writing schedule. I keep a planner online, which allows me to copy/paste activities to the next day if I cannot complete them in time, and that freedom is both a blessing and a curse.  When I wrote my first book, I did it in the span of 30 days, during July of 2018. I did that for the sole purpose of testing myself to see if I could write 50k words in 30 days, the goal for NaNoWriMo. This may be one of my many faults, but I hate undertaking a task unless I know I'll be successful. I didn't want to attempt NaNoWriMo without knowing I could actually do it.  Surprise! I made my goal.  Now, for a little context, I was road-tripping with family for that entire month (yes, a whole month - it was glorious), so I had a lot of in-the-car time with nothing else to do. My siblings had iPads with downloaded movies, but I get bored very easily of m...