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“Being a writer requires an intoxication with language.” ~ Jim Harrison
Your First Draft: Are You Doing it Wrong?
You are not going to agonize over a sentence, trying to get it perfect in a rough draft. You are not going to write for five minutes, then scroll back and think about how to make your dialogue more realistic. You are not going to stop and think about if Bobby should have freckles, and then go to Google and search up kids with freckles and decide if they look more like the Bobby in your head. Oh no! Because none of this will help you…
Countdown to a Book Release: The Shocking Truth of the Work Involved.
In a conversation today, another writer confided that the publishing world is weird: there’s a lot of waiting and then everything has to be done at once. As the final weeks tick down before the launch of my book, A Peculiar Curiosity, this statement has never been truer.
Got Writer’s Block? Here’s Some Free Help.
Are you a fiction writer struggling with writer's block? Are you lost for the next move in your latest story, or are you itching to write something new but don't know where to start? Maybe you've already published several books, but you're looking for your next big...
Five Tips for Breaking Out of Writer’s Block
Writer’s block is frustrating. It’s annoying. You know where you want to be in your career: a writer with a couple of contest awards, stories in anthologies, novels, and a healthy fan club. But where you are now is something far short of that, am I right?
Well. Writer’s block is something most writers will experience in their careers. And there are a few important things to consider when you are trying to break out of it.
Editors-Do Writers Need Them?
Ask a writer if editors are a needed service and you will get a variety of reactions. Some writers rave about their experiences with editors, seeing them as the savior of their manuscripts, while others see editors as self-important villains, put on this earth to rob writers of their voice and vision. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between the two extremes.
Using the Five Senses to Avoid ‘White Room Syndrome.’
Have you ever noticed how some writers seem to make their pages come to life? Not only do you become immersed in the story and characters, but it’s like you are right there, seeing and experiencing it all. This is because the author knows the fine art of using the...
He Said/She Said: Five Tips for Perfecting Dialogue Tags
Dialogue tags are those few words tagged on after a sentence of dialogue to indicate who is speaking. Many writers make numerous mistakes with dialogue tags that end up costing them readers.
How Writing Flash Fiction Can Improve Your Novel Writing
Flash fiction writing is clean writing, and that’s why it’s great training for honing your novel writing skills. When you force yourself to write within word count parameters on a regular basis, your writing starts to take on a different shape.
Fiction Writing Tip: Combining Genres to Attract a Wider Audience
Identifying the genre is how readers know what your book is about and if it will be of interest to them. It’s also how it will be labeled and categorized across various selling venues. You can combine genres to reach a larger audience than if you just stuck to one....
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