I was one year old when The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison) was released by Hollywood. I found it in my pre-teen years as a TV offering. Then and there, I fell in love with the idea of ghostly love. Which is kind of weird because we lived in a house …
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How Writing Horror is like Writing Comedy
It’s almost Halloween! So here at Write On Sisters we’ve lined up a week of scary writing tips and tricks. I love scary stories. I grew up reading R.L Stine and Christopher Pike and Lois Duncan. I experienced the teen slasher flick revival that started with the movie SCREAM. I wanted to write my own …
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Guest Post: Four Magic Words by Fiona Quinn
The Write on Sisters are thrilled to have Fiona Quinn with us today! Her “Thrill Writing” blog is one several of us follow. The wealth of information she provides writers of crime fiction and mysteries often includes information other genres can use as well. The fact that she is gracious and warm to her readers is just …
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What We’re Reading for October: Fairy Tales
I love scary stories. Armed with a flashlight and nerves of spaghetti, I would spend hours reading R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. But the first scary stories I ever read were… fairy tales. Seriously. Poisoned apples, witches, deadly candy houses, big bad wolves, giants on beanstocks, evil stepsisters – fairy tales are scary stuff! The …
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Why I Love Scrivener
Microsoft Word or Pages works well for a manuscript – you have all the features you need and you know the program. Fair enough. But…if you want something you can manipulate faster, keep track of, highlight on a sidebar to investigate later, plan like index cards on a corkboard, and be able to bring …
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Imagination and the Unconscious: The Neuroscience of Creativity
This is the next installment in my series on Fiction as Art. The other night, my writing workshop instructor handed out a reading assignment on crafting dialogue. Ho-Hum, I thought, I know how to write dialogue. But buried near the end of this article came a golden little nugget that blew me away. Paraphrasing the …
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Prequels: Just the Facts
Publishing is competitive. It takes a number of different approaches and some long-range planning for any author, regardless of talent, to carve out a thriving career. The right prequel could make a huge difference in that plan, or it could spell disaster. But how do you know if a prequel is right for you? If …
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The Pomodoro Technique® for Writers
Created in the 1980s. Picked up by business in the 1990s. But still largely unknown among the general public. And writers need to know! As a student, Francesco Cirillo struggled with time management. We’ve all been there. As an undergraduate, I worked 40-45 hours a week while taking a full load of classes. Oh, and …
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Freelancing (aka “Pantsing” Your Livelihood)
When it comes to writing, I am definitely a plotter. I love knowing where my story is going and filling in the details on scene index cards before I start writing prose. But when it comes to making money, I am a pantser. I have no idea what my next job will be or when …
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Clearing the Writer’s Clogged Pipes
Personally, I don’t believe in Writer’s Block. There is no such thing in my book. Yes, there are days you just can’t get moving, but completely blocked? Nah. That’s an excuse. You have to push through, like Roto Rootering your pipes. Most of the time this occurs during the saggy middle (which the Sisters …
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