When we think of pen names, we often consider the privacy or marketing aspects and assume that means using a name completely different from our real name, such as Samuel Clemens writing as Mark Twain. But they can also address the need to make our names more distinctive and Google-able.
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If someone does a Google search on our author name, will they find us? This issue comes up more frequently now as writers want to know if they should have a website and/or blog before they’re published. That’s a complicated question that doesn’t have an easy answer.
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Brand. Platform. Social media presence. How many of us cringe at those words? Whatever happened to the days when writers could simply write? But the truth is that as soon as we’re sociable as a writer, whether online with Twitter or in real life at a conference, we’re forming our […]
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Earlier this week, Julie Musil had a great post about how to create story endings that resonate. I almost wrote an epic comment to her post, but decided to save my wordiness for here. And I get to use one of my vacation pictures—Disney’s California Adventure theme park, get it? […]
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We’ve heard of rewriting, revising, and even re-imagining, but what does “re-envisioning” mean? I recently came across the word in a great post by Juliette Wade about how to redo a scene without rewriting. When a scene isn’t working, it’s tempting to blame the scene and get rid of it. […]
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Sometimes it still comes as a shock to me that anyone visits my blog and cares about what I have to say. So when I received my first blog award, I was completely unprepared. My first thought was of being tremendously flattered. I think my exact reaction was, Me? Seriously? […]
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First, I want to thank J.A. Paul and Rachel Firasek for their guest posts. I had fun with their interviews and I hope you all did too. Yes, I’m back from a fun, exhausting trip to Disneyland. And yes, my vacation inspired a blog post. You’re not surprised, are you? […]
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I’m still at Disneyland, so I have another guest joining us today. This is the second installment of a new feature here on my blog: Interview with a…Muse (because interviewing our characters is just too sane). After I had so much fun with my Do You Have a Muse? post, […]
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“Hey, Jami, now that you have a bazillion things to do and no time to get it all done, what are you going to do?” “I’m going to Disneyland!” That’s right. I threw up my hands and decided everything could wait a week while I head to Disneyland with the […]
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Wait…what? Well, we want to make our antagonist good for our story anyway. *smile* Kristen Lamb has been running a fantastic series on antagonists (Part One, Part Two, Villains, Balancing Evil, Inner and Outer Demons). She shares more gems than I can capture here, so definitely check out her posts. For […]
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