Where Normal Need Not Apply
This isn’t going to be one of those “let’s bash traditional publishing/self-publishing” posts. There are still too many of those opinions on both sides, and I don’t want any part of that. Two people I respect blogged recently about publishing and kool-aid. Agent Janet Reid posted about the ten things authors should be doing right now. […]
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My first sarcastic impulse is to answer that question with “Duh.” Writers have to be somewhat delusional to pursue a career that has such a minuscule chance of financial success. (Not to mention that fiction writers exist in a constant state of make-believe.) But there are different styles of delusion. There’s the unconsciously incompetent phase we go through […]
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Last week turned into an interesting demonstration on the benefits of guest posts. We’ve heard the typical reasons for allowing guests or agreeing to guest post: * increased traffic * networking * and marketing. We bring in guests and hope their readers will stay at our blog for a while, becoming regular visitors. We do […]
I’m excited to share today’s guest post with you because in addition to being a lovely person, Jody Hedlund runs a fantastic blog for writers. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also graciously arranged for a book giveaway of her latest release, The Doctor’s Lady (see bottom of post for details). Jody writes historical romance stories that touch on […]
Last week, we talked about how stories change from the initial story seed to the first draft. Then it dawned on me that I’ve experienced that same evolution between a first draft and a finished draft, where so much changed that I hardly recognized the original story any more. For fun, I’ve used Microsoft Word’s Compare […]
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Artists of every type find inspiration all around them, and writers are no exception. Ideas might come in the form of a dream, a “what if” question, an overheard conversation, etc. Those are all fairly normal sources of inspiration. Personally, I’ve been inspired by dreams, “what if”s, an 80’s music video, a mutation of another […]
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With any job or activity, if we want to get better, we have to stretch ourselves. Athletes strive to move faster or stronger. Musicians aim to complete a harder, more intricate piece of music. And writers… How do writers stretch themselves? We can collect feedback on our writing from beta readers, contest judges, and critique […]
I had a really bad day of writing on Tuesday. My muse was off in his own little world. I was frustrated about getting further behind on…well, everything. And the words I did write felt like crap. (I know, I know. It’s my own fault my muse was distracted, because in my last post I wondered how to […]
Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen me tweet quotes from spam comments posted to my blog. If so, you might have noticed I get some very “interesting” comments. It’s gotten to the point that I look forward to reading spam comments. Even more pathetically, I’m disappointed when they’re the usual […]
(Note: I am not Tawna Fenske, so that title is not a euphemism for anything. Sorry. However, this post might include a reference to a shower scene of one woman with two guys. Or not.) I mentioned last time that one day of the weekend was taken up by writing-related stuff. What I didn’t mention […]
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