Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
We all get tips from well-meaning people who truly believe the wisdom they’re imparting. The most common writer advice I hear is this: You don’t need a detailed outline. Don’t revise mid-draft; just write. It’s okay if your first draft sucks. This advice works for a lot of people, but if this isn’t your process …
Continue reading “Common Writer Advice Revised”
Dear sisters, brothers and writers of all kinds, Last Sunday when I was running around trying to get ready for a day out with my kids and husband I stopped for a few minutes to clear some space on my computer. It had been warning me for weeks that it didn’t have enough disk space …
Continue reading “Save Your Work!”
Tomorrow I have the honor of reviewing a new series I read over the weekend. Six books in one weekend. God Bless Amazon and the Kindle Reader. I’d finish one, et voila! Presto-chango, here’s the next one! I fell asleep about halfway through the sixth one last night and, because I can’t stand to have …
Continue reading “Keeping Your Mojo”
Last week I gave a few tips from The Oxford Inklings on improving your critique group. You can read that post here if you missed it. This week I want to share one of that group’s most valuable writing tips. The Inklings all advocated reading works-in-progress aloud. Historically this make sense, they were from a …
Continue reading “Reading Aloud: Why Hearing Your Book Is Important”
I’m obsessed with the meet-cute. If you don’t know what a meet-cute is, it’s those quirky, funny and/or sexy ways two people meet for the first time. This is most often used for a romantic meeting, but it also works for future friends. Most people know the term meet-cute from the movie The Holiday, but …
Continue reading “Master the Meet-cute”
If you’re like most of the writers I know, you’re not getting paid much to do what you do. You’re sitting up late at night or early in the morning. You’re writing between meetings and brainstorming quickly in the elevator on your iPhone while you rush off to make money until the day you can …
Continue reading “A Reason To Bleed”
Roughly four months ago I began a challenge, to write one short story a week for a year. 52 stories in 52 weeks sounded like nothing when I sat at the starting line of week one with a few good ideas but when I finished week two I was concerned and I began to worry …
Continue reading “Story Ideas in Unlikely Places”
Thirty years ago we wouldn’t be debating the viability of prologues. Readers assumed writers would build their world and characters a little before diving into the thick of the story’s plot. Now including a prologue can trigger an instantaneous pass from agents, editors and readers alike. So how did we end up in this mess, …
Continue reading “Pro the Prologue or Against?”
I’ve never been a fan of graphic horror. I have vivid memories of burying my face in my boyfriend’s shoulder whenever our friends talked us into watching a horror movie. However, I love gothic tales, the darker and creepier the better. I will always drop whatever I’m doing to watch black and white episodes of …
Continue reading “Nightstalkers and Nightmares”
Don’t panic. This (infuriating) title is just an adaptation of lyrics from a song I can’t get out of my head. In case you’re puzzled, Rex Harrison posed a similar question in My Fair Lady, ridiculous as it seems, because given the choice between him and Audrey Hepburn, would any of us really choose to …
Continue reading “Gender Questions: Why Can’t A Woman Write More Like A Man?”