Where Normal Need Not Apply
Wish me luck. I’m about to dive into one of the eternal debates among writers. Which is “better”: a plot-driven story or a character-driven story? If you’re not familiar with the debate, let me explain why this question is so fraught with potential landmines. A common snub against genre stories is that they’re all about […]
Pin It
Last week, Cheryl Reif asked the question on her blog: Short or Long? Which Way to Post… She wondered if people preferred reading blog posts that weighed in at the “recommended” 300 words, or if people enjoyed longer posts. Anyone who reads my blog knows I don’t follow the 300 word formula. *cough* In fact, […]
Today’s post is part of the #PotterChat blog hop, a collection of fantastic blogs, Twitter chats, and prizes. Check out Susan Sipal’s post at Harry Potter for Writers for all the details. For those who didn’t win a prize in my Milestone Blogiversary Contest, you might want to complete the scavenger hunt of this blog hop, […]
Pin It
Last year, I discovered the fantastic resources available for writers at The Bookshelf Muse blog. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have created valuable references for writers with their thesaurus collections. The Emotion Thesaurus gives lists of all the different ways to show an emotion (including non-cliché ones!). The Setting Thesaurus includes unique details to bring various […]
Pin It
*whew* I officially made it to the one-year mark for this blog. I thought reaching this point would be a lot harder than it was. Life is often that way. We put off something we dread, and then when we finally buckle down to do it, we wonder why we feared it so much. (Note […]
Pin It
Last time, I used the Green Lantern movie to illustrate how not to plot a story. This time, we’re going to look at the Green Lantern characters. As noted before, Green Lantern felt superficial and formulaic. Sure, it’d be easy to say that it was a comic book movie and therefore lived up to expectations, but […]
Pin It
I recently saw the Green Lantern movie. I know, I know. The reviews were terrible, but I often enjoy turn-brain-off movies. This fun-but-dumb superhero action flick definitely fit the bill. But the real entertainment came after the movie, as my family and I analyzed why this superhero movie failed compared to other recent titles. Where did this […]
Pin It
A few weeks ago, we talked about about branding and blogging and how to create connections with others. People who feel connected to us are more likely to be willing to give our book a try or to help us promote. Connected readers might become our front lines in our quest for global bestseller domination. […]
My one-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th. The occasion has me doing something I don’t normally do: math. Eek! This is my 101st blog post, and during that time, this blog has passed 100 Google Friend Connect followers, 250 RSS subscribers, and 1500 comments (not including mine). I know those numbers look small […]
If you’re a writer and on Twitter, you should know about the incomparable Elizabeth S. Craig. She shares fantastic resources for writers that she finds all over the web, like a one-woman news source. More importantly, if you’re a writer—whether you’re on Twitter or not—you should know about her Writer’s Knowledge Base, which pulls all […]
