Where Normal Need Not Apply
Recently, a good friend of mine asked for my help in identifying the issues with her story. She’d struggled with it on and off for years and was wondering if she should just chuck the whole thing. I offered to take a look at it, even though her story’s genre […]
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Whatever genre we write, we often have to write scenes that make us uncomfortable. High on that discomfort scale for many authors are romantic scenes between characters. Whether we write romance or another genre with love interests, or whether the characters merely kiss or have sex with the door open […]
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All writers, especially those who self-publish, have to decide: Are we writing and publishing just for ourselves? Or are we writing and publishing to get customers (readers)? If we’re doing it for ourselves, things like editing and those nice covers we talked about last time don’t matter. Those who write […]
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We’ve probably all heard the phrase: Fake it until you make it. The idea is that we’re supposed to act the way we want others to see us, and we’ll be treated the way we want. The concept can be applied to our personal life as well as our professional […]
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Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. The day we eat too much food, roll our eyes at the antics of our extended family, and think about all the things we’re grateful for. Or in my case, see if I can sneak in my NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) words for […]
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I’m leaving in a week to attend the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference, which is meeting in Anaheim, California this year. This will be my third conference and my second RWA National. So, why am I nervous? Oh yeah… I’m giving a workshop this time around. By myself. How […]
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My two-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th. Wow, I’ve been writing this blog for two years already? How can something feel like yesterday and forever at the same time? Mostly, I’m amazed that I found that much to blog about, not just in the number of posts but […]
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As we head into “writing conference” season, I thought I’d revisit my post about how to write a pitch. This post originally ran several months ago, but the information never gets old. (In fact, I’ve used this to help myself write pitches lately.) Pitches fall into many categories, from loglines […]
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Whether we’re a plotter, pantser, or somewhere in between, we all eventually have to take the time and make our scenes the best they can be. This week I have a guest post at the Girls With Pens blog on how to do that. (Edited to redirect link, as GWP has shut down.) […]
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Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. The day we eat too much food, roll our eyes at the antics of our extended family, and think about all the things we’re grateful for. Or in my case, wait for the tryptophan to kick in from the turkey so I can catch […]
