When you set out to write a novel, you quickly learn that it takes a lot of drafts. There’s the first draft, which is laying down the story. The second works out what the story is missing, and every draft after is refining until it becomes the finished book. How many drafts that takes depends …
Continue reading Motivational Tricks To Keep You Working On Your Manuscript
When you become a writer, one of the "rules" you're advised to learn is to avoid info-dumping. If you haven't heard of it before, it's when the writer bombards the reader with everything they think they should know—all at once. While you might think there's no way you do that, info-dumping is an easy trap …
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time in the last four years, you’ll know I’m a fan of writing routines, being organized, and to-do lists! While I regularly assess and change my writing routine depending on how my life is going, if I find something that helps with the routine, I’ll …
Ah, point of view (POV), a writing essential to include in your book but something that you can get so easily wrong. It doesn't take much to slip from the view of the character who is telling your story, and you might not even notice you've done it. That's where the following advice comes in …
Continue reading Point Of View Errors! How To Spot And Fix Them
While a great storyline and an intense setting can make for an excellent read, what really creates a great book is awesome characters. After all, how many pages have you kept turning just to see what happens to the MC? Getting your reader to care about your characters is a task every writer should aim …
Getting into the writing game doesn't just mean composing entire books, dreaded synopses, and query letters, you also need an author bio. Yep! As much as you might want the focus to only be on the art you've created, agents, publishers, and readers are going to want to know about the person behind the pen, …
If you've been following me on social media, you would have noticed that I've been uploading videos on Tuesdays as part of a #TeaserTuesday hashtag to promote my books. These 30-second videos include a snippet from my latest release and are animated with the magick that features in my YA Urban Fantasy series, Blackbirch. Creating …
It can take years to shape a WIP into its book form, which is why it feels so weird to type "The End" and know for sure it is the end. While this is seen as a job well done and the signal that it's time to move onto the next project, for some writers, …
Once upon a time, the only thing a writer needed to take care of was the writing itself. In modern times, with the rise of social media and self-publishing, a writer needs to do more. I and the other talented wordsmiths in my #6amAusWriters Twitter group refer to this as "authoring." Sometimes when we check in …
