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 […] [ ... ]
Last week I wrote about going to a writers’ retreat. (Retreat from Harsh Reality.) Well, I’m back, energized, and ready to write. Christie Craig is a wonderful speaker. First of all, she has roots in Alabama and lives in Texas, which means she has a way of talking and an accent that I could listen […] [ ... ]
Friday I’m heading for the Bay Pointe Inn on the banks of Michigan’s beautiful Gun Lake. My husband grew up in this area, so over the years we’ve often visited Gun Lake. We used to drive up for Sunday brunch at the original Bay Pointe Inn, before they tore it down and built the new […] [ ... ]
Recently I was asked by two people (different times) to do a blog about query letters. I did write a short one last year during the April A to Z Challenge. https://marissoule.com/q-is-for-query/ If you’re wondering what you should or shouldn’t put in a query letter, please take a moment to read that earlier blog. A […] [ ... ]
I’m sorry I missed last week’s blog, but a call from my brother-in-law had us hurrying to close up the place in Florida and head north. We didn’t make it in time to see my mother-in-law before she passed, but we did make the visitation and funeral. Now that the funeral is over, I’m trying […] [ ... ]
It doesn’t matter if what you’ve written is five pages long or five thousand pages, or if it’s fiction or non-fiction; the first page is your most important page. That first page must do a multitude of tasks. It introduces your topic or story, shows the reader your writing style, and, hopefully, makes the reader […] [ ... ]
Last weekend I participated in the Venice Book Fair (Venice, FL). It’s the town’s fifth book fair and it gets better every year. This one started Friday night with a 90-minute master class led by thriller author, David Hagberg, followed by a wine and cheese reception, then a presentation by Oceanview Publishing, and finally a few […] [ ... ]
One Guest of Honor at Sleuthfest 2016 was Valerie Plame. On Saturday, Paul Levine interviewed Plame. I took notes, but I’m sure I missed some important information. The following is what I picked up from the interview. Valerie Plame is the CIA operative whose identity was revealed by the Bush administration after her husband, Ambassador […] [ ... ]
The first session I attended while at Sleuthfest 2016 was to help me with some research. I’m thinking of doing another Mary Harrington book, and if I do, her counterpart, Jack Rossini, may need to investigate a bomb explosion. So at 8:30 am Friday morning, I was sitting in a too-cold hotel conference room listening to […] [ ... ]
Sometimes a disaster turns into a great adventure. (Of course that’s because I’m not the one, in this case, who will have to pay for the damage.) Last month, Mary Ann Aug, a fellow sister in Sisters in Crime, responded when I asked if anyone going to Sleuthfest would be willing to share a the […] [ ... ]
Tomorrow I’m heading for Deerfield Beach, Florida to attend Sleuthfest 2016. This is the fourth (or maybe it’s the fifth) Sleuthfest I’ve attended. Each has been a wonderful experience, so I’m looking forward to this one. Next week I’ll try to sum up some of what I learn at the conference. Meanwhile, so far in these […] [ ... ]
Narrative is basically anything that’s not dialogue, which means it includes dialogue tags and action tags. Whereas grammar rules can be ignored, if desired, when writing dialogue, those rules should be followed with narrative. If you’re not sure about the rules, there are books (Shrunk & White’s Elements of Style; Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots & […] [ ... ]
Dialogue is used for a variety of purposes. To convey information To help define character To break up the monotony of long passages of narrative and provide more white space on the page Dialogue tags are the narrative that tells the reader who is speaking. “Good morning, students,” the teacher said. “Help!” she screamed, hoping […] [ ... ]
One of the first decisions a writer must make when starting a story is whose point-of-view (pov) to use? Will the author tell the story? A narrator? One of the characters? Several of the characters? At the end of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century it was common for an all […] [ ... ]
Normally I would go from formatting to point-of-view or verb tense when writing about craft, but last week I read two items that I wanted to share. According to UNESCO over 2.2 million books are published each year. The word “over” is because the count only includes books with an ISBN. There are also many […] [ ... ]
Unless you’re writing solely for yourself (and maybe for your family and a few friends) you need to know the craft of writing: formatting; point-of-view; chapter length; what tense to use, and so on. Although getting the story you want to tell out of your head and into some sort of printable form is the […] [ ... ]
If all goes well, and if you read this blog on January 13, 2016, my husband and I are now in Panama City, Panama. While here, we’ll be doing a couple days of sightseeing. Friday we’ll catch a plane and fly to Bocas del Toro. From there we’ll take a boat ride to one of […] [ ... ]
When I hear someone talking about giving a pitch, I think they mean they’re going to pitch a story to an agent or editor. However, last Saturday I attended a meeting for a start-up Sisters-in-Crime chapter where the program was to be “Pitches,” and discovered what we’d be doing is “Pitching” our books to the […] [ ... ]