Today is wet, rainy and cold. A week ago, everyone was wearing short sleeves. There’s a saying about Texas weather — if you don’t like it, wait a minute and it will change. The same should be true of weather in fiction. It’s easy to overlook weather and default to sunny and temperate weather throughout, […]
I’ve been re-watching an old 80’s sitcom that recently popped up on one of the streaming services I subscribe to. One thing I never noticed while watching it when I was a kid was the unusual use of the passage of time. This probably wasn’t so jarring watching episodes sporadically, but watching them back to […]
I know this is something I’ve talked about before, but I just want to re-emphasize the need to be kind to yourself when it comes to judging first drafts — especially if it is one of your first projects. It’s easy to discourage yourself, right at the time when you should be proud of finishing […]
This section of my novel writing class at UTA is covering techniques for writing different kinds of scenes. Often, when I teach this class, students will insist that their book doesn’t need one of the scene types — typically either action or relationship building scenes. I think new writers tend to shy away from whatever scene […]
How to Plan a Book Blog Tour Book blog tours are a fun way to get the word out about your upcoming book and you as an author. It can be fun, that is, if you plan ahead and stay on schedule. The more planning you put behind a book blog tour, the more you […]
I know Amber does all the writing but behind the scene there are little choices that I help out with. Among them are buying all the little things that help her write effectively. There are links to items to purchase and we get a little something back if you use them. But these are my […]
Discovery writing can be fun, and there is a certain enticement to the idea of telling yourself the story for the first time at the same time as you write it for your audience. But if you are having trouble finishing projects, or you want to boost your productivity to finish projects faster you really […]
Sometimes I have an idea for a piece of writing (the topic for a blog post, for instance, or the main character relationships for a short story) but then I get stuck on developing the meat of the idea. It’s like – I know the idea is there in my brain. I had an idea […]
Let’s talk books! Specifically writing craft books. As writers, wanting to improve our art is natural, and learning from the insights – and the mistakes – of others is one of the quickest ways to do that. It’s no surprise that my own writing manual is my favorite. Obviously, it reflects the way my mind […]
In a way, pacing in a book is like interval training. The reader would get worn out if the events were always at peak tension and breakneck speed. But without any challenge to the characters and threat to their goals, the reader quickly becomes bored. As you write, be deliberate in the way each scene […]
