Tag: Robin

Solutions for Common Writing Mistakes: Runaway Word Counts

[pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”20%” ]“A lot of first-time children’s novels are too long.” Charlie Sheppard, editor of Bone Jack by Sara Crowe[/pullquote] Recently I read a post in the Guardian. They interviewed some of the top editors in children’s fiction to discover the most common mistakes made by new writers. {I’ve included a few of the …
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10 Tips for Writing Fight Scenes

Have you ever skipped a badly written fight scene to get back to the main story? I have, and I never missed it. That’s because although fight scenes are often critical to the plot, once the blows start flying, two things often happen. Writer #1 includes too little detail and there’s no tension. We don’t …
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3 Book Categories that Should Benefit Under the New KU

Today starts the first day of the new Kindle Unlimited royalty program. As with so many things in life, there will be winners and losers. I gave my thoughts on the biggest KU losers last week and now I have the winners. Remember, this is just my prediction for the books that will fare the …
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Writing Tips for 1st Person POV

First person POV has its advantages and its drawbacks. If you love it, and many writers do, you know one of the biggest issues is the overuse of personal pronouns. If you’re not paying attention, you can end up with long passages where every other sentence starts with the same word. In those rare instances …
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If We Were Having Coffee: PitMad Edition

If we were having coffee, I would confess it’s been a crazy, exhausting week. We would grab seats in my garden, since I just refinished some lawn furniture for the occasion. I have some interesting news to share; I took part in PitMad this week. I suspect some of my friends don’t know about this …
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The Back-up Antagonist

We recently had a guest join us to talk about creating characters with good character. If you haven’t read that post, I strongly suggest you do, since creating likable characters is always a hot topic with writers. However, it turns out I’m a contrarian. I’m crazy about unlikable characters that run from those skirting the …
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Weekend Coffee Share – Going Batty

If we were having coffee, I would brew enough caffeine to keep me alert for a week. The truth is, it’s been pretty crazy at my house lately. We’re in the final countdown to the end of the school year and the kids are like sharks smelling blood in the water. They know summer freedom …
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5 Life Hacks For Writers

Every writer I know is already working harder than they ever thought possible. They sacrifice evenings and weekends with families to make their writing dreams come true. Since we can’t work faster, we need to work smarter. Try one of these writer hacks–or try them all. Either way, you will enjoy a boost to your …
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3 Advantages & Disadvantages of Writing a Serial

Short Story Month continues. Are you excited yet? I hope so! Now that you know, thanks to Heather’s last post, if your story idea is more suited to a short story or a novel, we take this discussion into the grey area between the two by talking about serial fiction. Serials come in many forms, …
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Six Don’t-Skip Short Story Tips

May is short story month. In honor of the event, Heather and I have a few treats planned this month. Hopefully you are taking part in a contest, or perhaps just letting the event inspire you to dash off a short story (or two) for the writing practice. If so, here are my six favorite …
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