Tag Archives: advice

Writing a Book Blurb

In November, you probably wrote madly and got a lot of words down for the story of your dreams. You now have to take a step back and figure out what it is you’ve got. If you don’t know what you have, you’re not likely to get very far trying to fix it. In myContinueContinue reading “Writing a Book Blurb”

Plot Holes

If you’re Nano-ing, bookmark this and come back in December. Good luck as the final days of November roll on. I’ve talked about revising by identifying the focus of your writing and filling out details using the different tools of storytelling. I’ve also talked about looking at the growth (or rather the lack of it)ContinueContinue reading “Plot Holes”

Growth

Again, consider bookmarking this post until after NaNoWriMo if you’re taking this month to write your book. In this second post for broad evaluation and fixing of your story, let’s talk about growth and change. What happens to us affects us. What we experience changes our perspective, our behavior, and our relationships. We understand thisContinueContinue reading “Growth”

Preptober week 4

This final week before the rush begins, take a writing break and crack open some other aspects of creativity: visuals. This week you’re going to do some “manifesting” by creating marketing materials. Write your book pitch Focusing on the big things about the story idea that excite you (and thus will excite readers), write theContinueContinue reading “Preptober week 4”

Preptober week 3

This week you’ll be writing – short things that are part story, part summary, all background. This week is about setting the main character(s) in your mind. Turn them around and over and about in your hands to see them from all sides. You’re going to write a “now” story about the characters in November.ContinueContinue reading “Preptober week 3”

Recommended Reads: Setting

A conversation in a group prompted this one. Setting is more than just place. It’s also time period (and the things that can and can’t happen because technology), and the unique mores or manners required in a particular scenario at that time and place. If your character will be breaking these rules of behavior, thereContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Setting”

Recommended Reads: Point of View

Of all the tools in storytelling, point of view seems to be the most often bungled. An author says they’ve chosen omniscient POV, but what they’ve written is close third person POV with numerous errors. Or they wrote 3rd person POV from the MC’s perspective, but then when both the love interest and the MCContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Point of View”

Recommended Reads: Characters

Character development, or characterization, involves a lot of psychology, IMHO. Filling out character sheets lends itself to very stereotypical presentations. Joe Friday’s “just the facts, ma’am” comes to mind when I see them. They even look like rap sheets, IMHO – very off-putting. If you want full-bodied characters, you can’t boil them down to wordsContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Characters”

Recommended Reads: Plotting

I’ve been doing a great deal of developmental editing lately and that entails often pointing writers to examples or books that discuss strategies for whatever they’re struggling with. I thought I would share a few of my go-to reads for various kinds of writing help. Help for structuring your plot You know all the partsContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Plotting”

Story building: tone

This is part 2 of 2 posts discussing pacing and tone, crucial elements of story building. Go here for a deep dive into pacing. Today’s topic: tone. What is tone? Narrative tone is the feelings created by the words the writer (or speaker) uses that surrounds and embeds itself into the story, giving it anContinueContinue reading “Story building: tone”