Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Last month I wrote about a story’s hook. And two weeks ago Robin wrote about reversals, the big and the small. For the purpose of this post, I’m talking about the big type of reversal – the plot twist! I’ll explain how I got twists and hooks mixed up and how to tell them apart. To refresh, a HOOK …
Continue reading “The Hook vs Plot Twist Conundrum”
For those of us in the northern hemisphere, February is a brutal, soul-sucking, mind-numbing month of misery. It’s so damn cold. And dark. And depressing. If you live in the city, all the pretty white snow has turned to salty grey sludge. If you live in the country, you’re probably buried up to your eavestroughs …
Continue reading “3 Steps to Beat the Winter Writer Blahs”
I have begun outlining a horror story, something that has turned out to be so much fun that I wonder why it took me so long to seize this genre and make it my own. But better late than never! Last week I blogged about the one simple rule of writing horror. This week I’m …
Continue reading “4 Emotive Tools of Horror”
I love scary stories! As a kid, I devoured every R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike and Lois Duncan on my small town library’s shelves. When the Scholastic Book Fair came to my school, I ordered more spine-tingling novels. I would read them under my covers with a flashlight, not for atmosphere but because I was supposed …
Continue reading “One Simple Rule of Writing Horror”
If we were having coffee, we’d be at my house because I’m on a tight budget and rigorously following my own 10 Tips To Survive The Starving Artist Lifestyle. That means not buying a $3 cup and instead making a whole pot for 25 cents. You can either partake in tea (I have English Breakfast, …
Continue reading “If We Were Having Coffee… Starving Artist Style”
I’ve had many false starts on my writing journey – stories that started strong and got lost in the middle, stories that fell flat and forgettable at the end, stories that had a debilitatingly weak character arc. I found ways to address all those problems, but in the process still wasted a lot of time. …
Continue reading “3 Things That Make A Story Worth Writing”
Thanks so much to Kathryn Howes for nominating WriteOnSisters for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award! Kathryn blogs at https://kateywrites.wordpress.com/ about motherhood, writing for kids and raising readers. Check out her #RaisingReaders posts every Monday! The rules of engagement for this fun little award are simple: Display the award on your blog. Link back to the …
Continue reading “7 Personal Facts + 8 Favourite Blogs”
A little over a year ago I wrote a post called How To Stay Motivated Without Deadlines or Money. In it are seven productivity tips (which I still follow today), but of course not one of them is “set my own deadlines.” Why? I explained: …this is my first time writing a novel and I …
Continue reading “Writers & Productivity: The 7 Deadly Do’s & Don’ts of Deadlines”
Like many writers, my new year’s resolutions revolve around being more productive during my writing time. And for some people, just setting their minds to this seems to make it happen. Not me! A few days into 2015, nothing had changed. I was still spending too much time daydreaming (a problem I blogged about here) …
Continue reading “Writers & Productivity: Do you need an Internet Blocker?”
Top Ten Tuesday is a list created by the book loving crew at The Broke and The Bookish. Every Tuesday is a different topic and everyone is invited to join in the fun. Let’s do this! Like most voracious readers, I never have time to read all the books I’d like to, so putting together …
Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday: 2014 YA Releases I Meant to Read But Didn’t Get To”