Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
If we were having coffee, I would meet you at a café. Unfortunately, I have a sick kid at home. Nothing serious, but I wouldn’t want to expose you to the sniffles when you have projects under deadline. You dive right into a slab of chocolate decadence that would normally take both of us to …
Continue reading “Coffee Share: A Giddy Fangirl Version”
Character mapping is a technique I use on every project I write. These simple flow charts keep track of all the interconnected relationships in my books and help me build more complexity into those relationships. I love including lots of secondary characters. Out of personal necessity, I developed a quick method for making character maps. …
Continue reading “6 Easy Steps to Great Character Mapping”
If we were having coffee, I would tell you with a gleam in my eye, that this week marked the end of an era! I have won the Battle of the Blackberries. Yes, it was a bitter war, fraught with injury: the cut on my nose, the thorns under my nails, the blisters on my …
Continue reading “If We Were Having Coffee: The Battle Recap”
Every writer wants to create prose packed with energy and vitality. They know dull, lifeless writing disappoints the reader. Tired sentences are often the cornerstone of bad prose. They disrupt the flow and bore the reader. Take these tests and find out if your sentences pass, or if you’re writing tired sentences. Same Sentence Starts: …
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Today Write On Sisters is taking part in 1000 Voices Speak for Compassion, a movement intended to flood the internet with 1000 blog posts on this important topic. You can learn more about the movement on the founder’s website: http://yvonnespence.com/. And onTwitter at the hashtag #1000speak. Compassion. How can we expect a single word to sum …
Continue reading “Compassion: The Writer’s Gift”
One of the most important scenes in any book is the midpoint reversal. A reversal is an event that creates a fresh complication for the protagonist. It increases the stakes and sends the story off in a new direction. The reversal is the backbone of the classic three-act structure. If you don’t know what the …
Continue reading “4 Tips for Writing Reversals”
Heist fiction is not easy to write. It’s fast paced and twisty, and it takes a lot of characters. Over the last two Wednesday posts, I’ve been throwing open the vault and letting out all crime writing secrets. If you need to catch up, you can get more help for your story with Tips for …
Continue reading “Writing The Heist Novel: 7 Character Tips”
As I mentioned last week, I’ve amassed a huge collection of tips on writing a heist. Now, I’m throwing open the vault and letting all my research secrets out. I hope these tips can help my fellow crime writers craft the caper of their dreams. Today it’s all about: The Loot! The prize in a …
Continue reading “Writing a Heist: 5 Tips for Picking the Perfect Loot”
Top Ten Tuesday is a blog hop 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 by creating their own top ten list. I consider myself well-read in science fiction and fantasy. Certainly I’m no stranger to …
Continue reading “Top Ten Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read Yet”
Since the weather continues to be abnormally Spring-like, I would invite you back into my garden. The flowers have taken hold in every corner and I would walk you around the property to show you. We will need to avoid the ants, which become a nuisance this week when I stepped into a nest. Since …
Continue reading “If We Were Having Coffee… January Wrap-up”