Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA
Welcome to Fall in Love With Your Writing.
Write every day, brainstorm through blocks, craft your story. Create a sustainable writing practice that results in publishable work. Whether you join with a free or a paid subscription, I’m happy to have you here and excited to meet you. Ready? Let’s go.
My posts focus on:
Writing every day
Not everybody agrees with me. Sometimes I don’t agree with me. But, honestly, if you want a career in writing, doing it every day will get you there the fastest. Create the necessary energy and mental bandwidth to do this thing, and learn ways to sustain the momentum of a steady writing practice.
Brainstorming through blocks
When I work with clients one-on-one, brainstorming is often the most productive part of our time together. I bring those techniques to the posts here. Writer’s block is just a sustained period of not knowing where to go next in your work. There are myriad ways to get through it. And there are also many ways to brainstorm through story snafus.
Crafting your story
Fundamentals of fiction are important, yes. Character, setting, structure, theme. You need to master them—we all do. I don’t know everything about the craft of writing fiction (nobody does), but I’ll share what I do know. And forgive me, but writing about craft can be bor-ing, so I do my best to make it entertaining. Or at least not snore-worthy.
I also write occasional posts about:
Travel
I go to England and France each year to teach writing workshops through a small business I created with Debbie Guyol. You can read all about that here. Last year, in 2024, we spent a week in Italy and we might, we just might, be offering that option again in 2026. (Since we recently happened to discover a fabulous villa that is begging us to stay there.) You can read about some of our adventures here, and here and here.
Family
Well, I usually don’t write about them specifically but they find their way into my posts at times. It’s because my husband and I live in a multi-generational home. In 2020, we moved into an addition built onto the back of the house we raised our two children in. My daughter, her husband, and their three boys (there were only two of them at the time, then came a pandemic baby), moved into the house. My son and his two kids (one of them my only granddaughter), live a few minutes away. It’s wild and crazy here all the freaking time and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Examples here and here.
Oh, and my rescue dog, Chip the pug, makes occasional appearances also.
I love all my subscribers, I do. In case you’d like to become one of them, here’s the scoop.
Free Subscribers receive:
My weekly Sunday love letters. I’ve been writing these in various guises for quite a few years now. They’ve been called “Sunday homilies for the non-religious.” Most often, okay always, they are aimed at motivating and inspiring you to write.
Weekly posts, usually on Thursdays (sometimes I get my act together and get it out on Wednesday) about any of my main three topics: writing daily, brainstorming, and craft. But most often these focus on craft. In a non-boring way. Or so I hope.
Monthly prompt posts. On or near the last day of the month, I post prompts for each day of the upcoming month.
Paid Subscribers receive:
All of the above.
Classes! So far we’ve gone all the way through the Artist’s Way. Next up, starting in May, we’ll read Bird by Bird together. The way it works is this: On Tuesday I post the lesson about the reading for the week and on Fridays at 11 AM Pacific, we gather on zoom to discuss. We have so much fun on these gatherings! And we learn a lot along the way, too. (All gatherings recorded.)
Monthly prompt post + a PDF of the prompts so they can be printed out.
I really like PDFs. I think other writers do, too. So if I can make something into a useful PDF for my paid peeps, I will.
Founding members receive:
All of the above.
An hour-long one-on-one zoom call with me to discuss anything related to writing you want. Or we can talk about your book. I love brainstorming with authors. In my other life, besides writing novels, I’m a book coach with many years experience and an MFA under my belt.
And take note! I’m always dreaming up new ways to serve you better. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.
About me
When I’m not Substacking or family-ing or friend-ing, I write novels, stories about places you long to live filled with people you’d love to know. The easiest place to find them is on Amazon (sorry) here. I’m also a book coach with many years experience and an MFA under my belt. (Proud member of the first MFA graduating class of Spalding, now known as the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing.) And I teach workshops in France, England, and Italy, and in and around the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, my beloved home.
In case you’re longing to read more
I am the great-granddaughter of pioneers who walked across the Oregon Trail, and so I consider myself a westerner through and through. Many of my stories are set in my home state of Oregon, where my characters reside in fictional versions of my favorite wine area (Calderwood Grove) and coast towns (Eden Cove), as well as Portland, where I reside. I am the author of the novel Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior, and The Bonne Chance Bakery, the novella Let There Be Snow, as well as the forthcoming titles Bridget Meets Her Match, part of the Calderwood Grove series. I write stories about places you long to live filled with people you’d love to know.
When not writing fiction, I teach writing in Portland, England, Italy, the south of France, and the Pacific Northwest. I also coach writers privately. I am Director Emeritus and a current mentor at the Writer's Loft, a certificate-in-writing program at Middle Tennessee State University. I earned my MFA in creative writing as a member of the first graduating class from Spalding University and I’m the author of a dozen non-fiction books. My fiction and articles have appeared in numerous publications.
I live in a multi-generational home that is by turns boisterous and exuberant but seldom quiet. (Seriously! It’s never quiet around here. I am an inveterate user of YouTube focus tracks.) If you’re on a Zoom call with me, odds are good a grandchild will wander past in the background.
I believe no breakfast is complete without a crossword puzzle to work and no Happy Hour can actually be happy without popcorn. (Wine goes without saying.) Despite frequent stays in France, I regularly fracture the language. I am, however, fluent in Carney.
