Let’s Write – The Structural Edit (Continued)

31st October 2019.Reading time 22 minutes.

In the last post, we talked about the first two elements we must revise during the structural edit–plot and setting, and characters. Today, we’ll wrap up the last three. Flow and pace Conflict and resolution Voice and style Let’s get right to it. Flow and Pace I’ve grouped these two elements together, because most of […]

Let’s Write – The Structural Edit

29th October 2019.Reading time 23 minutes.

Welcome back to the self-editing miniseries. 🙂 It’s good to have you. Last time, we summarised the self-edit. Feel free to check that out if you want to brush up first. In the next two posts, we’ll be looking in-depth at the first big part of the self-edit–structural editing. (Quick note. I thought to keep […]

Let’s Write – Basics of Self-Editing

17th October 2019.Reading time 12 minutes.

Something about the editing process has always intrigued me, and I’ve wanted to take an editing course or two for ages. Yet, I’ve always had an excuse why not to take that course. I sent off A Trial of Sparks & Kindling to my editor at the end of September, which meant I had nothing […]

Major Character Death

25th July 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

I’ve recently read a few books where major characters died–and I’m talking viewpoint or main cast characters–only to be resurrected. Then, you know, they all live happily ever after. When this dead-but-resurrected-thing happened the first time, I was annoyed but okay. My mood elevated to disgruntled by the second time, then shot into the orbit […]

On Writing Advice

6th March 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

The internet. A place of abundance. You can learn almost anything on YouTube or blogs. Unfortunately, many of these instructional sites will just as easily help you fail as help you learn. Others won’t set you up for failure, sure, but your growth process can still be stunted by bad advice. Which brings us to […]

How to Support Indie Authors

27th February 2019.Reading time 10 minutes.

Another huge bomb has dropped on the world of indie authors. If you haven’t heard about the #copypastecris disaster, this is where it started. The TL;DR version of what happened is this: Cristiane Serruya copied sections from over 50 romance books by over 30 authors and hired ghostwriters to thread those copied scenes together, then […]

On Tropes

13th February 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

Ah, tropes. The building blocks of all the stories ever crafted. What’s a trope? Well, those themes and elements we find over and over in novels, movies, games, series. For example, a princess with a mean stepmother. A cop who joined the force because their father was killed in the line of duty. A fairy […]

Strong Female Characters

6th February 2019.Reading time 7 minutes.

There’s this thing all around the internet. Advice paired with a general outcry–write strong female characters. I’ve had multiple conversations about this in the last few weeks, and I thought we could continue chatting about it here. People want Strong Female Characters (from here on SFC) to the point where they come down really hard […]

Let’s Write Confidence

15th January 2019.Reading time 16 minutes.

It’s so good to be back in the swing of things with a writing post, especially one that adds to the Let’s Write Series. Now, I see you doing a double take there. Didn’t this used to be called the writing emotions series? It did, but then I had so many ideas to add to […]

Travel in Writing

8th August 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Quick fact – the average horse and the average person travel about the same distance per day. As in, giving your hero a horse may not actually bring them to the epic battle faster than they’d have gotten there on foot. No, I didn’t make that up. Hollywood, gaming houses, and other media tell us […]

Let’s Write Joy

1st August 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

If you’re here for the first time, I’ve been writing a series of posts on the body language of various emotions, so authors have a quick reference when they get stuck writing diverse characters. It’s so easy to fall into the same old repetitive action tags. I can’t tell you how many times I used […]

Let’s Write Fear

4th July 2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

From a fright when the spider lands on your arm, to being scared of the weird guy on the blind date, to full-blown terror when a dragon sticks its head out of the cave and you left your sword at home, fear is one of the most complex emotions that we’ve all had to deal […]

Let’s Write Excitement and Nerves

20th June 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Welcome to part three of the Writing Emotions series! You can check out the others here, and come back in two weeks for the next part. Today we’re chatting about nervousness and excitement. Since these amount to the same thing in terms of body language, I figured I’d group them. Of course, there are some […]

Let’s Write Sadness

6th June 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

Picking up from where we left off, we’re talking about sadness or grief today. The topic was suggested to me by someone in the writing group I belong to on Facebook. Love was also suggested and I’ll definitely delve into that one, but I think it might need to be spread over more than one […]

Let’s Write Anger

23rd May 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Friends. Writing is difficult. Especially emotions, which are the slightest bit important to make your characters come alive. At first, you really try to have your cast do interesting things, show interesting body language and have interesting expressions. But then, you slip into that easy repetition. He gave a look. She nodded. They shrugged. Or […]

The Writer’s Supply Network

2nd March 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Hang around writer’s forums long enough and you’ll soon see that there are many fake service providers out there. People who claim they’ll help you polish your manuscript before the world sees it, but then disappear with your cash. And since so many people are self-publishing these days, the demand for indie service providers is […]