Where Normal Need Not Apply
A story’s narrative is made up of a chain of actions (motivation/cause) and reactions (response/effect). The cause-and-effect chain, whether at the scale of story acts or sentences, creates our narrative drive: Is the story leading somewhere?
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Whenever we finish a writing project, we’re told the best way to keep moving forward, especially when we’re dealing with querying/submitting nerves, is to start another project. But that brings up the question: What should that next project be? Should we write a follow up to that previous book? Or should we go in a […]
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Last time, we shared suggestions on how to kick our muse into gear. One of my favorite techniques is using music. With NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—challenge yourself to write 50K words during November) fast approaching, now is the perfect time to revisit all the ways music can help our writing. On a day-to-day basis, music—er, […]
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Writing is an art form, and yet I don’t usually think of myself as an artist. Maybe that’s because when I think of art, I think of visual arts (I draw stick figures) or musical arts (I don’t play an instrument or compose music). Logically, I know there are plenty of other forms of art, but […]
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I think this week might secretly be listed on agents’ and publishers’ calendars as National Rejection Week. *smile* Okay, not really. But judging from the online conversations I had with writing friends over the past couple of days, it certainly feels that way to many of us. In other words, the rejections were flying in […]
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I’ve talked a lot about the issues facing authors on the Big 6 side of traditional publishing, from agent hunting to contracts. I’ve also discussed the self-publishing side of the aisle, from quality concerns to ebook pricing. In contrast, I haven’t posted much about small publishers. Honestly, I don’t know as much about the issues authors […]
Okay, I wasn’t going to do yet another post about Michael Hauge’s presentation at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Conference. But an off-the-cuff, as-we-were-heading-out-the-door thought he gave to us at the end of his “Using Inner Conflict to Create Powerful Love Stories” workshop really stuck with me, and I wanted to share it with you. Over my past couple of blog […]
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I’m in Anaheim, California this week for the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference, but I have another great guest here today. Suzanne Johnson just had her debut release a few months ago, and she’s been on fire with her stories. Her Royal Street debut came complete with a book tour. A book tour! For a debut author! […]
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While I’m at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference this week, I’ve invited two authors who have recently debuted to share their insights. Today, I’m excited to introduce Tiffany Allee. Tiffany and I actually know each other in real life, as we belong to the same RWA chapter and I mooch rides to the meetings off […]
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For many things in life, more is better. In stores, we see packaging with “Bonus 10% extra!”, “Now even bigger!”, and “Twice the number of chocolate chips per cookie!” (That last one is unquestionably better. One of my greatest achievements is making chocolate chip cookies with just enough batter to glue the chips together. Heh.) […]
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