Where Normal Need Not Apply
Most of you have never met me in person, so I need to start off by explaining that I’m a very expressive person. All those smiley faces in my tweets and blog comments? Completely true-to-life. You’ll never see me take a bet to try to keep a straight face for […]
Yes, I’m still in the deadline cave this week, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yay! While I’m hiding, I wanted to share this post I originally wrote last summer. The lesson is even more relevant to me right now. (That’s a look at one […]
I’m in a deadline cave this week, so I have just a short post inspired by my current crazy schedule. I’m so grateful to my awesome critique partners and beta readers. They’re trying to keep me sane. Or at least, they’re trying to keep me from going completely insane. But […]
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Anyone who has had me read their work can attest to the fact that I can be a tad, um … detail-oriented. *ahem* All right, I’ll admit it. I’m a nit-picky perfectionist, even on beta-reads. I know, I know. I’m trying to control this tendency. Beta-reading shouldn’t involve line-editing. And I owe […]
Should authors blog? We’ve all seen this question in some form or another. Some wonder if agents expect it. (Not yet but close.) Others want to know if it will help build that elusive platform. (It can.) But I propose another reason to blog: training your muse. My regular readers […]
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, have epiphanies. So there I was, trying to think about my manuscript’s last-minute revisions […]
Okay, what have we learned from the big series on creating strong characters? To feel realistic, characters need to have goals, a delusional self-image, multiple personalities, flaws, and a reason for their actions. Hmm… All that makes them sound a touch crazy, doesn’t it? (Not as crazy as I am, […]
This post was inspired by a funky sort of cosmic pile-up in which I had several experiences over the past couple days all involving Muses visiting people in the shower. Yes, writers are insane—more on that later. First, Christine Bell and I were discussing on Twitter how we get ideas […]
This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but people have asked me about it, so here goes: I’m not perfect. Yep, it’s true. Just because I’m a perfectionist does not mean that I am, in fact, perfect. Far from it to be honest. It only means that I really, […]
I’m leaving in a couple of days to attend my first ever writers’ conference—the RWA National Conference, the mother of all big genre conferences. So, how does a control-freak perfectionist prepare for this overwhelming experience? With color-coded, prioritized spreadsheets to keep track of all the hundreds of workshops (last weekend’s […]
