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How Can Guest Posting Help Us?

Arrows pointing in every direction with text: Expand Our Reach with Guest Posts

As writers, we have to be a one-man band for many aspects of our career. No matter how we publish, we have to do the majority of our marketing, and that can be a problem. Only so many friends or family members will spread the word about our work, so how can we reach people we don’t know?

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May 26, 2015

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What Does It Mean to Give Up?

White flag with text: What Does It Mean If We Surrender?

Ever heard the advice: “If you can stop writing, you should stop writing”? I’m here to say *pfft* to that. I gave up writing for years, yet I’m now a multi-published author. Choices we made about writing yesterday don’t determine today.

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May 21, 2015

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Are Beta Characters Weak?

Keyboard buttons spelling BETA with text: Are Beta Characters Weak?

I talked last time about the strengths of an alpha heroine. Does that mean betas are the opposite and therefore weak? Nope, I would never say that betas are weak, so what traits do beta characters have? What would a character without strengths look like?

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May 14, 2015

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What Is an Alpha Heroine?

Woman with a sword and text: How Strong Does an Alpha Heroine Have to Be?

I struggle constantly with keeping my heroines likable. Especially because I want my heroines to be on equal footing—power-wise—with the hero. In other words, I want alpha heroines to go with my alpha heroes. So let’s take a look at how heroines might be alpha characters.

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May 12, 2015

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Story Climax: Forcing Characters to Move Forward

One arrow pointed in an opposite direction with text: How to Make Our Characters Move Forward

Whatever happens in the Climax is often the reason we decided to write the story back when it was just a twinkle in our muse’s eye. But just before the beat of the Climax, our character experienced the Black Moment/Crisis, where they gave up. How do we get them to recommit to the story goals?

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April 30, 2015

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What Kind of Advice Works for You?

Drawing of happy and sad masks with text: What Advice Do You Need?

There’s no “one right way” in publishing. We can probably all think of ways that don’t work, but there are often several paths that do lead to success. The same applies to encouragement advice. We often see two kinds of encouragement in the writing world: pushy and sympathetic. Either way can work, depending on who we are at this moment in time.

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April 23, 2015

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Picking Editors: What Do You Need from Your Editor?

Color variations of a single shade with text: In Search of Our Perfect Editor...

Last week, we talked about the different kinds of editing and editors, and we also talked about how to evaluate editors. Now let’s dig deeper into some of the variations we might encounter when evaluating editors. By understanding these variations, we might better be able to find our perfect match.

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April 21, 2015

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