How many words do you put on the page in a typical writing session? 500? 1,000? When I wrote my novel, Emma Jean's Bad Behavior, my deal with myself was to write 2,000 words a day. Didn't matter when I wrote them, but if I hadn't written them before bedtime, I had to stay up […]
I've been mulling the concept of momentum in writing lately, because I think I'm finally getting some in my new novel. As I pondered, I hit on the idea of writing velocity. What is writing velocity? Here's the dictionary definition of velocity: "the distance an object travels in a specified direction during a unit of […]
At the Diamond writing retreat I co-led, I got clarity about where I'm going with my current novel. (On some odd subliminal level, getting my first novel accepted has made a huge difference in my commitment level to this WIP.) But last week I spent most of my time caring for my daughter and The […]
No matter what you're writing, memoir, fiction or even web copy, character is everything. You've got to know your character through and through in order to write successfully. This was brought home to me all over again last week, when I spent the week with my daughter and her baby and learned, first hand, what […]
This morning while writing Morning Pages I had a brainstorm for a new series of Saturday posts. Short and sweet, offering one writing tip. This, my friends, is the inaugural post, on scenes. Scenes dramatize writing. They bring it to life on the page. Scenes have dialogues, interiority, description and movement. I know, you know […]
So, the contract for my novel is signed, sealed, and delivered. And I now feel comfortable revealing the name of the publisher. It is Vagabondage Press. If you go to the link, you'll see they are looking for "literary quality quirky romance and love stories, fantasy, horror, and women's fiction." What's not to love about […]
Last week I co-lead a writer's retreat in remote Diamond, Oregon. (We kept referring to it as "the middle of nowhere" but one of the hotel's employees took offense to that. However, it kind of is.) It was an awesome week, with attendees and myself and my co-leader making strides in our writing. I had […]
While I’m away, I’ve got an array of guest posts for you. Today’s comes from Alice Anderson. Engross your readers by Alice Anderson I recently read an ARC from Karen Hawkins that got me thinking about ways to engross your readers. This book, The Taming of a Scottish Princess, did a fabulous job of it. […]
While I'm away, I'm running a variety of guest posts. Today's post is from Alene Snodgrass of Positively Alene. Welcome, Alene! The Life of a Writer–Peaceful to Frazzled It was a beautiful morning. The sun was slowly taking away the night sky and the sunrise colors emerging were shades of pink and orange. It was […]
Quick heads up–I'm having a two-day sale on my three-month, paid-in-advance coaching package. If ever you're considered hiring a writing coach, this is the time to do it, because I'm offering the packages for half off. You can visit the sale page to learn more about it. Just think, in three months, you could have […]
