Boost Your Creativity

Since the start of our first COVID-19 shutdown in DC back in March of 2020, it’s felt like everything has existed in a constant state of freefall. Though I have tried for a consistent daily routine, I haven’t had a traditional 9-5 working schedule since leaving my communications job at the end of 2018. Prior… Read more »

Resetting Our Creativity

Over the last several weeks, several months, truthfully, it’s felt like everyone I know, including myself, has been running on empty in most areas of life. At the very beginning of this “new normal” period, every day was a bit of an unknown. From not really knowing how long the pandemic was going to last,… Read more »

Sweet Writing is Made of Dreams

During this strange state of the world that we’re living in right now, I’ve noticed that my creativity and motivation in some areas has completely and utterly taken a nosedive. At the beginning of the year, I usually came up with story or writing ideas fairly regularly — pulling together a part of a universe… Read more »

Writing Outside of Your Comfort Zone

The world is a mess right now. The United States is a mess right now. And we cannot pretend like what has been happening and what’s continuing to happen isn’t happening. And I just wanted to name that here before going any further. Everyone has the right to engage in social justice in different ways,… Read more »

Jenn Walton

Three Ways to Preserve Your Creativity

Living in the midst of a global pandemic, in addition to being a very terrifying and uncertain experience, has also been an incredibly inspiring one. Since being ordered to remain on social lockdown and distanced from one another, both here in the District of Columbia and elsewhere across the country, my partner and I have… Read more »

Jess Walton

How to Deepen Your Characters by Assessing Their Fears

Fear is a very particular and peculiar thing. For some, it can be absolutely debilitating. For others, it can be motivating. And for others still, it can be inspiring.  Several weeks ago, I went into the doctor’s office for my first ever MRI at the age of 29, and it was honestly a terrifying experience…. Read more »

personality test

Using Personality Tests to Enhance Character Development

On a six-hour car ride with friends to one of the nine weddings my husband and I attended last year, we got into a conversation about personality types and the tests people take to determine them. From figuring out where you get your energy from to what motivates you to how you express and receive… Read more »

Watch With Purpose: Writing Lessons from Television

Over the last ten months, as I’ve been on this journey of one full year of fiction writing, I’ve gone through a multitude of creative highs and lows. When I’ve been in a good place with my writing and imagination, I’ve managed to finish creative projects way ahead of schedule. (For example, I had planned… Read more »

Let Your Imagination Run Wild

When I first started going to therapy in 2013, my therapist took a great deal of notes on my general thoughts and behavior, just to get a sense of me as a person. One of the most important things she found was that I had a pretty wild imagination. And that wildness has played a… Read more »