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Margeanne Mitchell

What Should We Do with Blog Awards?

Write Hard award

Sometimes it still comes as a shock to me that anyone visits my blog and cares about what I have to say.  So when I received my first blog award, I was completely unprepared. My first thought was of being tremendously flattered.  I think my exact reaction was, Me? Seriously? […]

May 19, 2011

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Do You Have a Muse?

Time lapse photography of star trails and fireflies

All writers get their ideas from somewhere.  The question is—where, or what, is that somewhere? I don’t believe muses are entities like those venerated in Ancient Greece.  However, when my subconscious comes up with things I never saw coming and never could have consciously created in a million years, it’s […]

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April 28, 2011

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Do You Know What Will Make You Happy?

Smiling sunburst

Yes, it’s cheesy, but that picture is me right now because today is my last day in the deadline cave.  Yay! As I’m finishing up my final push to the finish, I wanted to share this post from last summer.  I think it’s still relevant today, maybe even more so. […]

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March 17, 2011

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How to Create a Strong Character: Use Masks

Question Mark in Doorway

We’re working our way through the list of how to create strong characters.  So far, we’ve ensured they had goals and analyzed how their self-image differs from reality.  And related to that contrast we talked about last time… Do They Merely Represent an Idea? Characters are often most cardboard-like when […]

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November 2, 2010

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Is Your Muse a Perv?

Aqua Notes

This post was inspired by a funky sort of cosmic pile-up in which I had several experiences over the past couple days all involving Muses visiting people in the shower.  Yes, writers are insane—more on that later. First, Christine Bell and I were discussing on Twitter how we get ideas […]

October 12, 2010

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Critique Week: Building a Relationship

Steel Truss Bridge

During this two-week long Critique Week extravaganza we’ve looked at how criticism can help us improve, we’ve learned what a successful critique partnership looks like, and we’ve identified our strengths and weaknesses so we’ll recognize our perfect critique partner.  Now let’s put that all together and talk about how to […]

September 22, 2010

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Critique Week: Secrets of a Critique Partnership

Fiction Groupie Blog Logo

Today marks a milestone for me.  My first ever appearance guest-posting on another blog.  Woohoo! I’m at Roni Loren’s blog today with a post on a critique partnership that works: mine.  With help from my critique partner, Margeanne Mitchell, I put together a humorous peek inside our relationship and tried […]

September 16, 2010

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Do You Know What Will Make You Happy?

Coin-op Binoculars

My blog-home-away-home, Edittorrent, had another thought-provoking post yesterday.  You really should go read it, but if you don’t have the time, their point boils down to this: Know what will make you feel like a success as a writer.  I think this same idea can apply to just about anyone—not […]

August 18, 2010

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The Mega-Huge Ultimate RWA Packing List

Checklist

I’m leaving in a couple of days to attend my first ever writers’ conference—the RWA National Conference, the mother of all big genre conferences.  So, how does a control-freak perfectionist prepare for this overwhelming experience?  With color-coded, prioritized spreadsheets to keep track of all the hundreds of workshops (last weekend’s […]

July 21, 2010

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