Where Normal Need Not Apply
(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 […]
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Most writers have day jobs and families to take care of, so our writing time is precious. Yet the hour we had set aside for writing instead often goes to…something else. I’m no exception. I’ve spent too much “writing time” playing on Twitter or reading blog posts, etc. Sometimes I […]
Many writers, especially new ones, talk about how they write for themselves. When we first start out, we might not know if we’ll even be able to finish the project, so it makes sense that we’re writing for ourselves. We want to get this story out of our head. We want to […]
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I’ll be going on the road for some upcoming blog posts while I endure enjoy time with extended family. Wish me luck. One of my guest blog hosts also asked me to provide my “author bio.” Uh-oh. I thought I wouldn’t need that until I was published. But if we […]
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(Side note: Do you know how troublesome it is to find a picture of someone bound and/or gagged that doesn’t look…well, inappropriate for this blog? *snicker*) Writers all know the type—the character who refuses to play by the rules, who doesn’t communicate with us, or who wants to be a […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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