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Tag Search Results For 'writing advice' (228)
Bodies Under The Bed
A Field of Paper Flowers | August 7th 2008 by Kathleen
And no, I don’t mean the bastards city tax collectors who just sucked away half of our stimulus check in the form of car tag renewals. I’m talking, instead, about the graveyard of books that we write as we learn our craft that are not f read more
What Can’t You Live Without?
A Field of Paper Flowers | August 6th 2008 by Kathleen
I am in a lack-of-sleep, PMSy funk. Callie’s been sick the last two days (I spent 2 hours and over $200 at the vet yesterday to find out she’s got tapeworm–joy–and of course we have to treat both dogs for this–I am, howe read more
Daily Blog 4: Write and Wrong Writing Advice
Candid Canine | August 4th 2008 by Chris Verstraete
The Best - and Worst - Writing AdviceNot all writing advice is good, or should be heeded, but some can be invaluable.Some of the best advice I received (like not broadcasting a character's actions ahead) helped to fix those pesky bad writing habits t read more
Pen Names Revisited
A Field of Paper Flowers | August 3rd 2008 by Kathleen
About this time last year, I made the call to go with my real name rather than a pen name. I debated the merits of both and eventually voted on my real name. But lately I’ve been thinking about the whole issue of having a pen name again. read more
Tips for Plotting Your Novel – Part 2: Ferment the Plot
Cheryl Kaye Tardif Novels | August 2nd 2008 by Cheryl Kaye Tardif
In Part 1 I talked about percolating a novel plot, coming up with the ‘bubbles’, the ideas that form the skeleton of your plot. To write an engaging novel, you have to dig far deeper. That’s what fermenting helps you do.What do you think of whe read more
Flashbacks: Good or Bad?
EK's Writing Blog | August 2nd 2008 by EelKat
I think it depends on the story. I've read some flashbacks that were pretty amazing and helped move the story along really nicely. On the other hand, I've also read flashbacks that were just plain awful and dragged the story down making it dull and b read more
Girls? Ladies? Women? Which Do You Use?
EK's Writing Blog | August 2nd 2008 by EelKat
I found an interesting forum thread on the subject of how to refer to female characters in your story.You know, I never thought about this till now. I had to actually stop and think about what I used in my own writings! LOL! Well, after trying to re read more
Prologues Anonymous
A Field of Paper Flowers | August 1st 2008 by Kathleen
No man is an island, but I sure feel like one. I think maybe I should start a self-help group: Prologues Anonymous. Hi, my name is Kathleen, and I like reading and writing prologues. It feels like anti-prologue sentiment is rampant these days (and r read more
Tips for Plotting Your Novel - Part 1: Percolate Your Ideas
Cheryl Kaye Tardif Novels | August 1st 2008 by Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Fiction authors are often asked, “How do you come up with your novel plots? Where do you find those ideas?” As a Canadian suspense author, I am often asked these questions, and my answers will usually include something about letting ideas percola read more
Start Your Writing Career Now!
The Writing Journey | July 31st 2008 by Bob Younce
photo credit: skippy13 It’s no secret that I plan to open a writer mentoring program in the future. I spend at least a little bit of time, each day, working on the program. I’m exploring many options, too. I’m looking into what kin read more
Secrets of Writing Children’s Fiction: 5 Easy Steps to Help You…
Openlore Fiction Writers Magazine | July 31st 2008 by Arwen Taylor
Many people carry the misconception that children's literature is easy to create. It is often thought that storylines can be much more simplistic than adult fiction, that language can be unelaborated and that characters don't have to be particularly read more
Inciting Incidents
A Field of Paper Flowers | July 29th 2008 by Kathleen
There are so many fabulous on-line workshops for those of us left behind during this week at RWA that I can hardly keep up! I’ve been slowly trolling through my bloglines reading them and clipping and noting things left and right, either for read more
A New Market for Writers; Test Your Wings and Fly
Openlore Fiction Writers Magazine | July 29th 2008 by Arwen Taylor
As an educator, I have found that elementary students (K-5), are turned on by non-fiction books. Children are naturally curious about the world. The best way to take advantage of that curiosity is to provide young people with stories about real heroe read more
Internet Writing Growing Pains
The Writing Journey | July 29th 2008 by Bob Younce
(Before you read today’s post, check out Yaro’s Blog Mastermind opening page. He reopens the program at 10 AM today. If you want to learn to make money blogging, sign up. You won’t regret it.) If you want to make it as a writer, you read more
Freelance Writing and Network Administration
The Writing Journey | July 28th 2008 by Bob Younce
I’ve got a post today over at Freelance folder called How Freelancing Is Like Network Administration. Give it a look, and feel free to add your comments. While I’m on the subject, though, I’m curious about something. I do most of my read more
How to Write the Dreaded Novel Synopsis
Openlore Fiction Writers Magazine | July 24th 2008 by Arwen Taylor
A synopsis is a brief summary of your book written in the present tense which is submitted along with sample chapters and covering letter to agents or publishers. Sounds simple right? Yeah right! This dire task has driven authors to the brink of mad read more
Interview: Amanda, Creator of Headdesk and Writer Extraordinaire
Fumbling with Fiction | July 22nd 2008 by Chandler
I’ve got a cool interview to share with you today. She’s someone who advice on writing I respect very much and whose blog I read often. She’s won contests and teaches about writing. Amanda has been published in The Mainstreet Newspa read more
Write What You Hate
A Field of Paper Flowers | July 21st 2008 by Kathleen
How counterintuitive does that sound? I am not talking about picking a genre you can’t stand and writing in it. That would hardly be productive (though it might, perhaps, offer up a challenge to those inclined toward such things, I suppose). read more
Positively Melancholy
Tina-Sue Ducross | July 18th 2008 by Tina-Sue
I made my own ice.More accurately, I made my own ice cubes and I am hoping it works.For weeks, occasionally one of us remarked, "we should make some ice" and never got around to it.One, we can't find the ice cube trays, two, our freezer is pretty pac read more
Tranquility
The Writing Journey | July 18th 2008 by Bob Younce
It’s been quiet around here lately. Why is that? Blogging, for me, isn’t as much about getting thousands of subscribers (although I’m well on my way to four digits as of this morning) and it isn’t even about making a bunch of read more
What Doesn’t Work in Short Story Writing
Openlore Fiction Writers Magazine | July 17th 2008 by Arwen Taylor
Every year thousands of submissions pour into offices and flood emails of acquisition editors. Most submissions are rejected, and few returning letters are ever personally written or include any helpful feedback. Editors claim that it's because they read more
Approachable Avoidance & A Great Smoothie
Tina-Sue Ducross | July 16th 2008 by Tina-Sue
A friend once told me about the concept of approachable avoidance. The theory, or fact, or methodology, goes something like this (I am not an expert in psychology so bear with me and if I get it wrong feel free to comment): The closer you are to your read more
Smattering of Interesting Instructive Posts
A Field of Paper Flowers | July 15th 2008 by Kathleen
Because I am existing under the looming axe of a deadline, I’m going to direct you all toward a handful of instructive posts that came out recently on some of my regular reads that I thought were worth sharing. Over at Poe’s Deadly Daught read more
Literary Pets
Eric Wilder | July 13th 2008
Princess, my solid black pug is my newest pet and I have a hard time writing sometimes because she constantly demands her rightful place in my lap. Since she is the first pup or kitten that I have had in a while, I had almost forgotten the same insis read more
Writing Maine Slang
EK's Writing Blog | July 11th 2008 by EelKat
in Maine, every thing is "wicked good" instead of "cool"Maine slang is in some ways similar to other NE slang, but it more closely matches Canadian slang. Also, use of French words, in place of English words (even by English only speakers) is not unc read more
Tools of the Trade
The Writing Journey | July 11th 2008 by Bob Younce
People ask me, on a pretty regular basis, how they can get started writing on the web. What’s especially interesting about this is the fact that some of these folks are the same ones who, three or four years ago when I started this gig, sort of read more
The Last Blog Post
The Writing Journey | July 10th 2008 by Bob Younce
What will your last blog post say? When it’s all said and done, when you’ve breathed your last, what will your readers remember? What would you want to tell them? Recently, Dorian (you may know her as Coffeesister) sent a StumbleUpon link read more
Writing for Fun
The Writing Journey | July 9th 2008 by Bob Younce
When I was in grade school, I wanted to be a poet. I remember writing a limerick in the 3rd grade. It was something about a witch and a ditch. Couldn’t tell you the rest. By the 5th grade I was winning district creative writing competitions. Th read more
How To Reach Readers Online #1: Start A Blog
Writing Advice & Publishing Advice from Font Literary Agency… | July 9th 2008 by Orna Ross
If you’re at an early stage of the writing game, a blog can serve a variety of functions. It gets you writing regularly, gets you an audience, gets you used to meeting deadlines and allows you to develop your own writing at your own pace R read more
Hot Trends, Hot Markets - Part 3: Using AmazonConnect & Chapters…
Cheryl Kaye Tardif Novels | July 6th 2008 by Cheryl Kaye Tardif
This past weekend I spoke at the CanWrite! Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, on the Hot Trends, Hot Markets panel. I wish I'd had more time to talk, and since so many writers came up to me throughout the weekend, saying that they'd liked to have heard read more
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