One of my favorite means of finding inspiration is talking to other writers. Nothing shakes off the cobwebs gathered during a stint of writer’s block quite like a good conversation with an author who has been in your shoes.

Grab a couple friends and visit one of our Destination Inspiration locations for great conversation and brain storming.

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of touching base with some fantastic writers, some of whom are honoring us with tips and advice in the coming months via our “From the Pros” series. It’s amazing to me how just talking out plot points or bouncing ideas off of friends can rekindle a lost spark or provide fuel to scribble out a scene that was needed to tie everything together.

While writing is generally an isolating profession, it’s important to remember that a big part of our inspiration comes from living life and engaging those around us. Encouragement is fodder for the soul and I truly feel that it’s essential for a healthy writing life. Reach out to authors you admire. They may seem far away, but an email goes a long way and you may be surprised at the response you get.

Get connected with other writers, published or otherwise aspiring. Critique groups are great for this purpose. Communication with kindred spirits can wonderfully clear your vision, steady the nerves, define your purpose, sweeten and strengthen the spirit.

A beautiful spring here in Seattle has beckoned us to explore sunny nooks and relish pre-summer trips. We’ve been busy learning from other writers and stretching our own craft as we’ve pressed forward, reaching and expanding in our own individual niches.

To begin with, we wrapped up a Destination Inspiration: Portland series with a taste of Powell’s City of Books and also visited a great place to catch up as we’d been parted for a while through travel and spring plans.

In Writer’s Kitchen, we celebrate food bloggers who had recently released books. Cheers to our fellow authors!

Finally, and possibly most excitingly, we started our “From the Pros” series in which we are fortunate to have guest posts featuring advice and encouragement from successful and inspirational authors. This month we heard from Lesley Ann McDaniel about finding your character’s Achilles Heel.

We’ll be honest. Sometimes as writers we just need to get together and hang out. To catch up, reconnect, and share a good meal. The two of us did that one recent day at Phinney Market Pub & Eatery. Due to travel, it had been over a month since we had seen each other, and a relaxed dinner at this restaurant in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood was just what we needed.

We were excited to discover, also, that with the right timing, Phinney Market can also be a great place for writing. Read on for details.

Food and Beverages

First things first, let’s talk about the food. Phinney Market prides itself on serving local, sustainable, and seasonal food, and their commitment to quality is clear all the way down to the details. The cheeseburger is made with Painted Hills grass-fed beef and Beecher’s white cheddar on a brioche bun from Macrina. Order it with cider-battered butternut squash on the side if only to taste the sweet curry aioli that has the perfect balance of flavors. On the particular night we visited, an excellent bottle of Côtes du Rhône was available for $20 so we went for it. To top it all off, we ordered crème brûlée, which was well-executed but nothing unique.

Location and Atmosphere

Located just North up the street from the Woodland Park Zoo, this is a great place to stop before or after a day at the zoo. The atmosphere is classy and open with sweeping windows, glass chandeliers and vintage fixtures and wallpaper. Parents will also really appreciate the children’s corner complete with train table, books and cars. You can relax with a latte while the kids play.

Writeability and Purchased Presence

So, here’s where things get fun. If you time it just right, you can probably manage to get in a half an hour or so of writing before the place fills up. Arrive right as the restaurant opens and sit down with your notebook or laptop and do some strategic writing as you wait for your order. As soon as people start to file in, do be mindful, though, of the staff and patrons and don’t linger any longer than you need to. And don’t forget to tip extra well–you’re representing an entire class of writers, after all!

Price: $$

Small plates start at $5 and main dishes run from $12 to $16.

Parking

Located on the main road in a residential neighborhood, you’re bound to find a parking spot within a block or two.

Writer’s Tip

Given its location near the zoo and park, this is a great place to people watch. Try the classic exercise of picking one person who stands out to you and imagining a character profile. If you have time, use that profile to start a short story.

Find it:

Phinney Market Pub & Eatery
5918 Phinney Ave. N
Seattle, WA  98103
Website

How to use Daily Writers’ Fix

Monday:

Sight

Don’t always rush to delete the outtakes. Stop for a moment and see if they can inspire your writing in any way.

What are the things on your to-do list that you keep telling yourself you’ll get around to sooner or later? I’m not talking about writing deep-cleaning the house or getting the piano tuned. I’m talking about things related to your writing career that don’t exactly have to do with the act of writing itself. They’re the things that will help take your career to the next level. This week you’re going to work on them. Take a moment to list a handful of those tasks–they could be starting an e-newsletter or upgrading your blog’s theme. Or perhaps you’ve been meaning to contact your dream magazine and ask for writer’s guidelines. No more procrastination! Each day this week, tackle one of those tasks. By the end of the week, you should be well on your way to the next phase of your career!

*Guest post by Lesley Ann McDaniel*

Every hero needs an Achilles’ heel. But what exactly does that mean?

In one of my current manuscripts, the hero gets an opportunity to rescue the heroine in the climax of the book. What kind of hero would he be if he didn’t, right? Since the story takes place on an island, it makes sense that the water surrounding it would figure into the final mêlée. I knew from the start that the hero would jump in to save the heroine, but when the time came to write that moment, he wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t jump.

It was then that I discovered his Achilles’ heel. It’s his overwhelming fear of water.

So, what exactly is an Achilles’ heel, and where does the term come from?

According to Greek mythology, Achilles was an exceptionally brave warrior. When he was born, his mother tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the River Styx, which presumably held magic powers. Unfortunately, the heel she held him by remained dry and, therefore, vulnerable. All an enemy had to do was aim for the one part of Achilles that was still mortal.

So any weakness, whether in a person, a thing, or an idea, can be referred to as an Achilles’ heel.

As writers, how do we apply this to our characters? Think of it as their greatest fear or weakness, like Indiana Jones and his fear of snakes.

Why does this matter? Because it’s an effective way to raise the stakes for our characters, and a reliable tool to prevent a “sagging middle” in our stories. Knowing a character’s Achilles heel lets us create more difficult decisions for him, if we do it right.

In the example of my poor water-fearing hero, his choice has been elevated from ‘save-the-heroine or not-save-the-heroine’ (a pretty ho-hum choice) to ‘face-my-darkest-fear or continue-to-be-a-coward’. The moment is more powerful because he has to face his greatest weakness.

Here’s how to effectively utilize a character’s Achilles’ heel:

1. Set it up early in your story.

As with every story element, this shouldn’t announce itself as a set-up. Reinforce this component of your character, but don’t project the pay-off. Let the reader’s curiosity build.

2. Your character must acknowledge his weakness early on.

He can either deny it, decide he’s fine with things just the way they are, or maybe even express a desire to overcome it someday.

3. If your character has a nemesis, that nemesis has to take advantage of your character’s Achilles’ heel.

4. Let your character face his weakness in an interesting, unexpected way.

Ideally, this would come at the 2/3 inciting incident, or the climax. Maybe both, as long as the second event is even more creative and unexpected.

5.   Your character doesn’t necessarily have to overcome his greatest fear, but he does have to face it.

Be creative. What’s the most interesting Achilles’ heel you can come up with?

LESLEY ANN MCDANIEL writes romance, romantic suspense, and young adult fiction. Her new book, “Lights, Cowboy, Action” will be released through Heartsong Presents in June, 2013. Contact her at lesleym3@juno.com or visit her website at www.lesleyannmcdaniel.com.

How to use Daily Writers’ Fix

Monday:

Sight

What’s at the end of the road?

All writers learn from those who have come before. In my case, I am blessed with a circle of friends who are successful in their writing right now and have books coming out soon. Part of me celebrates with them and the other part wants to learn from them. Lucky for you, we’ll be doing both here at Nooks & Cranberries!

Over the next few months we’ll have guest writers sharing tips and tricks about writing and what’s worked for them. In addition, we’ll fill you in on some of their work and their upcoming books.

First up, next Thursday, Lesley Ann McDaniel, author of “Lights, Cowboy, Action” will share about discovering your character’s Achilles’ Heel.

Here’s looking forward to learning, honing our craft and celebrating success. Cheers and happy writing!

Hi friends, I hope this morning equals sunny skies and a warm pot of coffee for you. Or, if it doesn’t, that at least you can savor the coziness of cuddling up with a sweatshirt at your desk with a hot cup of tea while listening to the rain pound on your windows. This week’s edition of Daily Writer’s Fix is all about fostering your goals–through the setting you create for yourself in your writing nook. Each day this week, as you sit down to write, take a look around you and analyze it. What could you do to make it more inspiring? Each day, take one step toward making your writing nook a place where you want to linger, a place where the words flow and creativity abounds. Happy writing, Daytona.

Roger Ebert. Image from nextmovie.com

Prolific journalist, film critic and screen writer Roger Ebert died yesterday. Whether you agreed with his reviews or not, somehow we all wanted to know what he thought about the movies we loved. He’s the reason “two thumbs up” is a staple phrase in American culture. What made him unique for his time was how he judged a movie based not only on the basic film techniques and artsy stuff, but also on how it made him feel. If he really didn’t like a movie, he came out and said it! In addition to his journalism  career, he was also a social media pioneer for writers. He has been using a laptop to email his work since the early 1990′s, kept a blog and thrived on Twitter. All this enabled his work to continue even after he lost the use of his voice (to cancer) in 2006. He truly was an inspiration to writers, journalists in particular. We will miss you Mr. Ebert.

You can read Roger Ebert’s official obituary for free online at rogerebert.com. What are your memories or experiences with Ebert’s work?

Here at Nooks & Cranberries our motto is that “there are plenty of reasons not to write, but we’re here to ensure that a lack of creativity isn’t one of them.”

Lately I’ve had plenty of creativity, but what has kept me from finishing the many projects that I’ve started is fear. It’s a silly fear really, but what it comes down to is that I’m afraid of killing my characters. You’d think the fact that I write thrillers and murder mysteries would have hardened me, but really I’m quite sentimental. In this case however I’m not talking about actually murdering my primary characters (although let’s face it, someone always has to die), I’m speaking to the fact that when we write a story, even a short one, we are committing those involved to a path. A path of identity. In a way, we are locking them in to certain facts. If dear ol’ country boy Mitch has a drawl and a swagger that makes the girls melt, you have just locked that feature into the minds of your readers and now that’s a permanent part of him. Having that as part of his identity is going to forever guide his choices and therefore will determine the road he takes. Now the possibilities of him being anybody else are, in a sense, dead.

Cowboy Douglas Duncan on the street in NYC. Image from wnyc.org/blogs.

This character killing reality has been a roadblock. Country boy Mitch will never have the street smarts of someone who was born and raised in the city. But then I realized something, just because I’ve used Mitch in one story doesn’t mean he is dead to every other story I write. Part of being a writer means having the liberty of reviving anyone I want and using them in another chapter. And having locked Mitch into his country persona doesn’t mean he can’t change. It’s all about justification. And I don’t mean the ‘excuse-disguised-as-reason’ type justification. I’m talking about authenticity. Perhaps being attached to certain characters and wanting to use them can open up options, not just close them down. Perhaps a certain journey Mitch takes transforms him into a city-wise country boy that adds a depth to his character that wasn’t there before. What we have to be careful of in the long run is making sure our intentions are genuine. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that while our uncanny ability to justify anything and everything can be very useful in the world of writing, it can also bring about some awfully flat and unbelievable drivel.

Here’s my challenge to you: wielding this power of justification, take a second look at some of your characters. Pick one that seems a bit flat and see what changes you can justify in their character that could give them more depth and perhaps some new plot twists!

Cheers and happy writing!

It’s a pretty exciting week for food bloggers. In the past week two of my favorites have announced book deals! Last Thursday, Hannah Queen told her readers over at Honey & Jam that she is now working on writing and photographing a cookbook of cake recipes, tentatively called Farm to Cake (Spring 2015, Stewart, Tabori & Chang). Then today I read over at Not Without Salt that Ashley Rodriguez is living her dream of writing a cookbook of her own, this one a celebration of her marriage with menus and recipes inspired by her Dating My Husband series (to be published around Valentine’s Day 2015 by Running Press). How cool is that? There’s nothing new about food bloggers getting book deals–it’s been happening for a number of years now–but these two are some of the most deserving and I know their books are going to be gorgeous, well-written, and trustworthy.

One final note: One of the great things about food bloggers announcing book deals is that they often do it by sharing a celebratory recipe. Hannah does so with Carrot Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting and Ashley shares the news with Ice Cream Cake with Chocolate Wafers, Hot Fudge, and Candied Cocoa Nibs. So check out their blogs, salivate over the delicious-looking photos, and drop them a note encouraging them in the process–after all, as all writers know, it’s a huge endeavor and the readers part of what helps keep authors going.

Cheers to you both, Hannah and Ashley!