When a character is introduced to the reader for the first time in a story, there is always a desire to tell all: what the character looks like, the character’s age, marital status, and everything that brought him or her to this moment. Of course, as soon as a writer does this, the forward motion of […] [ ... ]
Recently, on a yahoo groups I belong to, the topic has been Discouragement. I don’t want to start a similar discussion here, but it is a subject that touches many (if not all) of us at some time or another. It’s my belief that we, who are in a creative field (art, acting, writing) or […] [ ... ]
I often wonder if being a writer is a blessing or a curse. It’s 1:00 am Tuesday morning. Two hours ago I took a pill that was supposed to help me sleep. I guess my creative muse didn’t know that because for the last two hours (and even before that) she’s been bombarding me with […] [ ... ]
Early Harlequin romances were written in 3rd person from the heroine’s pov (point of view). It was quite a while before the hero was allowed his pov. Once he was, it wasn’t uncommon for writers to “head hop.” (Go from the heroine’s thoughts to the hero’s and back.) When I started writing romances, I was […] [ ... ]
Last Saturday I attended my local Romance Writers of America Chapter’s meeting. This month’s MMRWA program focused on the first three pages of members’ WIPs (works in progress). I’m not exactly sure how many members submitted their first three pages, but there were at least a dozen read during the program ranging from YA to […] [ ... ]
I want to continue my comparison of athletes to writers. Both athletes and writers enter competitions (the Olympics or other athletic contests for the athlete and writing contests or efforts to have a book published for the writer). Both enter with their best (best conditioning, best routine, or best manuscript). The competitors in the Olympics […] [ ... ]
I’ve been watching the Olympics, and I realized there are a lot of similarities between a successful athlete and a successful writer. Athletes who want to compete at the highest level practice. Most do this daily or almost daily. They don’t let illness stop them or family events. Because they want to improve, they find […] [ ... ]
Recently I’ve been seeing emails where the topic is the following question: Can I Use Real Places? The answers (as they should be) have been “Yes,” “No,” and “It depends.” It depends on what real places (Disney is very protective of its Trademark and anything to do with its products or theme parks.) and what […] [ ... ]
Last week I had the pleasure of reading a delightful romance (The Misadventures of Catie Bloom) written by my niece, Brooke Stanton. For weeks I (and many others) have been receiving teasers announcing the coming release of this book. I remember even voting, sometime in the past, on which cover design I liked best. When […] [ ... ]
Back in May a new writer asked how to keep others from copying her plot. My answer was: “There are only so many plots, so everyone is copying. It’s how each individual presents the plot that makes one story different from another.” The discussion then moved into how many plots are there? There is no […] [ ... ]
I’ve been friends with Joe Novara for over ten years. We were in a critique group together for some of that time, and after that group disbanded, Joe and his wife Rosalie acted as Beta readers for my novel A Killer Past. In return, I’ve had a chance to read parts of Joe’s new novel, Come […] [ ... ]
Said and asked are two words that become almost invisible in a story. They help identify who’s speaking—he said or she asked—but they don’t draw attention to themselves. (Unless used too often when not necessary.) Recently I took advantage of Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. I was trying to decide if I wanted to purchase a […] [ ... ]
On June 22, 2016 the Authors’ Guild had an interview for their Industry and Advocacy News titled “Agents’ Roundtable: Three Agents Reveal What They’re Really Looking for from Authors.” The roundtable included David Forrer, from Inkwell Management; Eric Myers, from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management; and Regina Ryan from Regina Ryan Books. These three agents […] [ ... ]
Both the query letter and the synopsis are tools used to convince an agent or editor to buy a story. A synopsis is often also used by marketing to sell the book to reps and distributors, and the art department wants one to help with a cover. Most writers will say writing the query letter […] [ ... ]
Want to be published? Then don’t do the following: Send your manuscript to the wrong publisher. I have a friend who, early in her writing career, sent a sweet romance short story to Hussler magazine. Now, when she looks back on that, she says she bets the editorial staff had a good laugh. Sending a […] [ ... ]
Writers need and want reviews of their books, not just for their egos, but to help with sales. We know family and friends will probably buy our books (At least, we hope they will), but to sell beyond that group of people we need to interest readers who don’t know us. The blurb on the […] [ ... ]
I was at the Portage District Library last Thursday talking with a group of writers and one woman asked how much it cost to publish an ebook. I had to give the unsatisfying answer of “It depends.” I decided that would be a good topic for a blog, especially since Friday I uploaded the file for […] [ ... ]
Last Saturday I had a writer friend say she wasn’t sure what to call her story in a query letter. She was debating between science fiction or futuristic, but mostly she wanted something that would give an agent a good idea of what the story was about. Hers was a good question. Whether you’re writing […] [ ... ]
What do you do if you’ve entered a contest and the scores you receive range from high to low and the judges’ comments seem to contradict each other? Or if you belong to a critique group where some of the members tell you what you’ve written is fantastic while others tear the piece apart? I’ve […] [ ... ]
In 1994 Debra Dixon was the guest speaker at the Mid-Michigan RWA Chapter’s “Retreat From Harsh Reality.” That was the first time I heard her talk about GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. It was one of those light bulb moments. I’d been writing for over ten years by then, but what Debra was saying made […] [ ... ]