Something hit me when I was going through my folder of unfinished stories the other day. No matter the size of the story–some were only a few hundred words while others were several thousand–they all had one thing in common. For every story in that folder, I thought, “Hey, that’s a pretty cool idea,” followed […]
Five Links Friday 7/3/15
Three day weekend! Here’s some stuff to read in between blowing stuff up and eating hotdogs. 1. A pitch sessions can be one of the most important and frightening things a new writer can do. Here is an article that can help ease the pain by Lisa Katzenberger at Writer’s Digest: 4 Questions Agents Ask […]
Where does your story begin?
It seems like a simple question, but it’s not as easy to answer as you might think. Take out one of your WIPs and look at the first page. What do you see? Is it a heavy description of the setting? Is it a flashback or a wordy telling of the back-story? Is it an […]
Finding your voice through outlining
I mentioned the other day that I’m having a spat with my second novel and we’re currently on a break. In the meantime, I started working on another project, a YA horror novel that has been brewing in my head for the last few months. I came up with a quick outline and wrote a […]
Getting to the second draft
Whoever said writing isn’t easy was actually lying. Writing, by itself, isn’t a complicated act. All you need is a computer (or a pen and paper) and a daydream. Anyone can daydream. Writers simply put those daydreams on paper. It might take a little bit of time to get started. You might have some sort […]
Writing prompts and themed anthologies
Writing prompts. The very idea probably sends you back to your 100-level college composition courses. Nonetheless, a good writing prompt can pull you out of a creative slump and help you put some words up on the blank, white screen you’ve been staring at on your laptop. There are quite a few sites out there […]
Lay off the back-story and get to the action!
Start your story where your story starts. You’re saying, well, duh. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. I want to talk real quick about one of my earlier versions of Holy Fudgesicles. This actually dates back to last year when I was preparing to attend the RMFW Conference. I first noticed a potential […]
Never Lie to the Reader
There are so many “rules” we need to follow as writers. Don’t write in the second person. Don’t open with a dream sequence. Don’t use too many flashbacks. Don’t use too many adjectives. Don’t use any adverbs. You get the point. But there is one rule of writing fiction that isn’t brought up very often, […]