It seems the number one way you learn more about your characters is simply by writing about them. Unfortunately, when this process occurs while you’re writing your story, it can show. Awkward, uneven character development in your completed piece can be the result. One way to get around this is to write scenes with your…
Editing Your Book
Every manuscript needs to be edited, and not just by the author. Sure, self-editing is an important step in manuscript preparation, but it’s not the final step if you want to be proud of your published work. We authors simply can’t catch all of our own mistakes. We tend to read what we think is…
New Book: Writing Young Adult Fiction
After two years of editing(!) Dani’s and my new book, Writing Young Adult Fiction, is about to be published. As one of our fans, I’d like to extend this special pre-publication offer to you: get the Kindle book for just $2.99, or get it for free when you purchase the paperback. My favorite part of the book…
Audiobooks are another great way to sell your work
Every month I receive a statement showing my latest audiobook sales, and it always amazes me. When I first decided to turn several of my books into audiobooks, I did it as much for fun as in hopes of making big sales. But month after month and year after year the income keeps coming. Now…
Children’s Books About Nature
Molland, Judy GET OUT!: 150 EASY WAYS FOR KIDS & GROWN-UPS TO GET INTO NATURE AND BUILD A GREENER FUTURE [chockful of ideas to get families, classrooms, and groups outside learning about nature, experiencing the world in new ways, and taking a hands-on approach to the three r’s (reduce, reuse, recycle). Chapters on being a…
What Genres Do Literary Agents Want?
Since agents work on commission, they are looking for books they can sell and make money from. Those don’t necessarily match what books are the best sellers. Some very popular categories don’t sell for high contract prices, meaning less commission to the agent. Agents are looking for the high dollar contracts. If you want to…
Guarantee Your NaNoWriMo Success
What do Water for Elephants, The Night Circus, and Wool have in common? They all started as NaNoWriMo projects. Every year hundreds of thousands of authors around the globe participate in National Novel Writing month, or NaNoWriMo, with the goal of finishing a 50,000 words manuscript in just 30 days. But, only a fraction actually finish their novels. Writing…
Story Patterns
The original url for this post was writetabulous.com I recently attended a writer’s workshop that was hosted by a local writers group. The presenter, Judy Olsen, talked about story patterns and how learning and using one of five basic constructs could make a world of difference in your writing success. Since I have never structured a book…
Critique Groups
Critiques are an essential part of the writing process. A critique is not simply a list of flaws, but offers suggestions for improvement. Here’s a list of seven critique sites that will make your writing better. http://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2017/10/becoming-better-writer-getting-critiques.html
How Much Detail? Getting Your Setting Right
by Jo Anne Fontanilla Every story takes place at same point or points in space and in time. It is incumbent upon the writer of fiction to “place” his story in space and time, as early as possible in his narrative, so that you will begin making the proper associations with the setting. The setting…