Every Thanksgiving, I write a “the best reason to blog” post because gratitude is such a powerful tool. Thinking about what we’re thankful for forces us to pay attention to what has meaning in our lives. The daily grind can make us forget why we do what we do, but being grateful for the good things reminds us of what matters most.
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Many of us start down the writing path without knowing the grammar rules. However, it’s best to know the rules before deciding to break them, especially as the proper use (and abuse) of grammar rules can strengthen our voice. Today’s guest post from Julie Glover shows how grammar can make a difference.
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Successful writing partnerships are all around us. How do they do it? Why do they do it? What are the pros and cons? Would it work for us? Today’s guest is Jennifer Hale, one-half of a writing team, and she’s here today to share seven tips she’s learned along their journey.
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It’s usually best to avoid “naming” emotions in our writing and to show those emotions instead. But to put the Emotion Thesaurus’s emotional cues into our voice, we might need to add our own spin, like from our observations of the real world. Today’s guest post has tips for how to develop our observing skills.
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As writers, we get to research anything we want. The problem comes when we think we know something, so we make assumptions without doing the research. Many of us assume we know the justice system because of the endless TV shows and movies depicting lawyers and courtrooms, but those sources don’t always get it right.
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We all have emotions, so we all think we know how to write them. However, sometimes the best writing comes from exposing an emotional truth that we’re hiding from ourselves. So the better we understand emotions, the better our stories will resonate with our readers.
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A common question among those getting ready to indie publish is “Should I use pre-orders or just publish right away?” My monthly guest post over at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University is digging deeper into our options for our release schedule and talking about the pros and cons for each choice.
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As we learn writing craft, we often go through phases. Just when we think we know everything there is to know, we discover another area to learn. One area I struggle with, even though I know the rules, is out-of-POV phrases. Luckily, one of my editors is a genius at finding these, and she’s here to share her tips.
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We’ve probably all heard stories about ebook formatting problems, but we can be at a loss for how to tell a good formatter from a bad one. What issues should we watch out for? What questions should we ask? Even if we traditionally publish, we might want to judge whether our publisher knows what they’re doing for ebook publishing.
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I started visiting the original The Bookshelf Muse website by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi soon after they started it, and it’s been fantastic to see their vision grow. So I’m thrilled to welcome Angela here today, as she’s going to share writing-related goodies with us.
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