Writing Advice From A YA Author Powered By Chocolate And Green Tea
As has been the basis for my posts since I started this blog in 2017, I write about where I'm at in my writing journey, what I'm learning, and hope that you find it just as helpful. This means today's blog is about what to include in an ARC (advanced reader copy), something I've only …
Any writer who's had to write a query or a synopsis for a submission knows how hard it can be. Trying to boil the essence of your carefully crafted story to a few paragraphs, or a page seems like the hardest thing ever. I'm here to tell you it's not. And that's because there's a …
Happy New Year, everyone! It's time to get out of that magical land between Christmas and New Year when you're full of chocolate and cheese and don't know what day it is. 2020 brings the chance to start afresh, kick off some resolutions, and get back into the writing game. If, like me, you took …
Continue reading Getting Back On The Writing Track After The Holidays
The holidays are a time for relaxing and taking a break, even Stephen King doesn't write on Christmas day! But writers like to make ourselves feel guilty if we aren't penning down words, even when it's time for a well-earned break, so here are some tips for maintaining a creative output during the holidays. Make …
Continue reading Maintaining A Creative Output During The Holidays
I recently read a book I was willing to say was the best book I'd read all year. It had everything I enjoyed in a story: great dialogue, good characters, tension, mystery, and a plot that built. It was such a page-turner that I couldn't put it down, racing through it in two days. Then …
We all know getting into good writing habits will see us complete our manuscripts, but what about those bad writing habits that don't help the process? You know what those habits are. They're the things that stop you from sitting at your keyboard regularly, eat up the precious part of the day set aside for …
Dialogue is an important part of any story and essential to get right. Good dialogue can reveal twists, unveil character traits, motivations, change the direction of the story, and give your cliffhangers the perfect bite—I mean, who doesn't love the final line of a scene ending in a suspenseful piece of dialogue! While it's up …
The real truth of writing is that you will spend a lot of time editing. A. Lot. Of. Time. Hours, weeks, months, sometimes even years (or at least, what feels like years). When the rush of new ideas is gone. When the thrill of filling in plot holes and working out twists is over. When …
Sometimes the best plotting in the world and wonderfully written characters aren't enough to save a story so boring even readers who can't not finish a novel consider putting it down. That's what can happen when your book lacks suspense, and if you're afraid of this happening to you, here are some ideas that might …
