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Rejection Dejection

Rejection Letter

We all have to deal with rejection in our lives, and it hurts to not get the job we want, the relationship we want, or the agent we want.  In fact, it sucks.  But as trite as it sounds, it really is better to try and fail than to not […]

November 30, 2010

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An Introvert’s Guide to Twitter

Outcast

In the comments of my last post about how to make online friends, several people mentioned they had trouble jumping into conversations on Twitter, so I promised a follow-up post.  Believe me, I get it.  Many of my school years can be summed up by this picture—being left out.  Been […]

November 23, 2010

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Critique Week: Building a Relationship

Steel Truss Bridge

During this two-week long Critique Week extravaganza we’ve looked at how criticism can help us improve, we’ve learned what a successful critique partnership looks like, and we’ve identified our strengths and weaknesses so we’ll recognize our perfect critique partner.  Now let’s put that all together and talk about how to […]

September 22, 2010

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Critique Week: Finding the Perfect Critique Partner

Step Pyramid

It’s probably a given that all good writers want to get even better.  Last week, I talked about how we can use criticism to improve our work, and I gave a peek inside a successful critique partnership. My critique partner and I work very well together, and we certainly lucked […]

September 20, 2010

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Critique Week: Secrets of a Critique Partnership

Fiction Groupie Blog Logo

Today marks a milestone for me.  My first ever appearance guest-posting on another blog.  Woohoo! I’m at Roni Loren’s blog today with a post on a critique partnership that works: mine.  With help from my critique partner, Margeanne Mitchell, I put together a humorous peek inside our relationship and tried […]

September 16, 2010

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Critique Week: Making Criticism Work for You

Columned Hallway

Are you *gasp* less than perfect?  Hey, it happens.  I know I’m not the only one. No matter what aspect of our life we’re talking about, whether we’re in search of parenting advice, the secrets to magic tricks, or kicking our writing up a notch, we can read, experiment, and […]

September 14, 2010

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What to Look for in a Writing Contest

Blue Ribbon

This past weekend was “contest entering” weekend for me—and I’m not nervous at all. (It’s okay, you don’t have to believe me.) But after several years of writing, this decision to enter a contest was a new one for me. Which of course begs the question, why did I finally […]

August 30, 2010

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Banish the Boring Parts

Table Setting

Last time, I mentioned how stories—the good ones anyway—avoid the boring parts of the journey by jumping into the action.  Today’s post continues that “skip to the good parts” theme to talk about settings. Setting is the sense of time, place, and mood within a story.  Descriptions create a world […]

August 25, 2010

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Unlike Life, Stories Aren’t a Journey

Road to Mountains

We’ve all heard the saying: Life is a journey.  Often this thought will be accompanied by—enjoy the ride—or something along those lines.  And that’s great advice for life.  But what about for stories? At the RWA conference, I attended the Inside Scoop workshop with Robin Perini and Claire Cavanaugh.  During […]

August 23, 2010

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What Agents *Really* Want in a Query Letter

Question mark on book

First of all, if you weren’t at the RWA conference, check out my contest for a free book from the RWA registration bags. The deadline to enter is midnight, August 16th. So my new RWA-buddy, Roni Loren, posted a great article on her blog about the QueryFest workshop.  When I […]

August 11, 2010

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