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? […]
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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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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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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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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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