Sparkly New Idea: It’s shiny, it’s distracting, it might be the best thing you’ve ever thought of! Baby Panda Idea: A little awkward, very fragile, it might die if someone says a harsh word. “I’m not writing this, just thinking about it.”: You’re doing a little research, flirting with…
Editing Letters… they are often the most beautiful and intimidating part of working with an editor. An editing letter exposes the soul of your book. It looks at all the weak points, highlights the flaws, and flails your ego with all the things that went terribly wrong. A good editing…
Congratulations on having a finished draft of your manuscript. The next step is editing the manuscript to the best of your abilities before you hand it off to a crit partner or editor. This is the essential checklist to get you started. Search for an unpack the following words: Thinks, Knows,…
No matter where you are in your editing career you need to know how to edit yourself. For the month of March the Writer Craft Wednesday posts will all be centered on how to edit your own work. Keep in mind that these are guidelines that have worked for me,…
All writers are not created equal. Some are gifted at world building, others excel at pacing, some write witty dialog without breaking a sweat (looking at you, Whedon). Whatever your skill, you should identify it and make the most of it? Why? Let’s pretend that your greatest strength is dialog….
On one of the writing forums I belong to someone asked how anyone could possibly write with little kids around. What they really wanted to know was: CAN YOU WRITE WITHOUT PUTTING YOUR KIDS IN DAYCARE? Not everyone has a partner, nearby family, or the money needed to create a…
Originally this was written for Savvy Authors in 2013, and then Leslie brought it back November 16th because she was struggling with NaNo. Reading through it, I saw a few places where I could expand on ideas better, so here is the revised edition of Breaking Through Writer’s Block! I…
There are a couple of hard and fast rules for writing romance genre that you need to keep in mind if you want to write category Romance. Anything market as Romance must have a Happily Ever After/Happy For Now ending. Anything less than that, and you will eaten alive by…
Welcome to the beautiful, danger fraught world of Commitment. The Basics Commitment is a place few authors dare to tread. Committed couples? Where’s the romance in that? (Confession: I totally think you can write a great romance with married characters and this is why EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE…
Yesterday we talked about the science behind Lust. The mad, crazy, passionate time when you are truly obsessed with another sentient being, or at least obsessed with getting in their pants and scoring a DNA exchange. After a short period of time the original chemical lust wears off. Reality sets…