As a series writer, I am sometimes asked how I keep everything straight. You know, how do you make sure Cousin Effie’s eyes aren’t brown in Book 1 and blue […]
Tips and Tricks
Stuff I’ve learned over the years
Description 101
One of the biggest problems facing new writers is description. How much should you do and how do you do it? You may think you need to describe everything in […]
Point of View for Dummies
One of the easy ways to slip up we see in our critique group is the point of view. Staying in the same POV is often difficult, especially for novice […]
Point of View Revisited
I had a question about POV (point of view) at my recent talk, so I thought I’d revisit the subject today. There are three basic points of view: first person, […]
Organizing Your Writing Life
I use two –ok three–pieces of software to keep my writing life organized. OK, I will admit that one of the three is Microsoft Word. I think nearly every writer […]
Writing With a Day Job
Did you know that around 95% (maybe more) of writers support their writing habit with a day job? Here’s how you handle writing on top of a full-time job. It’s […]
Showing vs Telling
I’m sure you’ve heard that you should “show” instead of “telling” in your writing. But what, exactly, does this mean and how do you do it? “He felt angry” is […]
What I’m Reading: Slushpile Memories
I’m reading an interesting little booklet by Kevin J. Anderson, entitled Slushpile Memories: How NOT to Get Rejected. I’m hoping it will give me some solid suggestions to improve my […]
Quills Conference Part 2
Another good session at the Quills Conference was “Short Story Prep & Submission” by President-Elect John M. Olsen. Polishing Your Text – when it comes to writing tools to polish […]
Historical Novel Society Conference Part 6
This might be the last of the conference reports! Today I’ll go over “The A to Z of Your Indie Author Business” by Anna Castle. First of all, you need […]