Welcome to My Blog/Newsletter
Why subscribe?
To read about another writer’s journey through writing, revising, querying, and learning
To see photos of my dogs 😉
To read about specific craft issues from the point of view of a book coach/experienced writer who wants to help other writers improve their craft
Your Writing Group: Tip #2
Giving useful feedback on work-in-progress fiction is tough. The more focused and specific you can be about what you need—and what you don’t—the more likely you are to receive feedback that will be helpful for you.
Your Writing Group: Tip #1
Tip #1: Know What You Want from a Group. Identifying what would you like to get out of your participation in a writers’ group can help you manage your expectations.
Are You in a Writing Group?
A writers’ group is great for support. Useful feedback is a bonus.
Novel Writing for Non-Conformists
So what does non-conformity have to do with writing? Being willing to follow your own ideas and stay true to your own creative vision takes guts. Especially when it makes you different—in a good way—from the majority of writers.
What’s Your Biggest Fear When Writing a Novel?
If you are a novelist who finds the blank page a teensy bit terrifying, you are not alone. I think I would rather go to the dentist than stare at a blank page of a new novel.
Build Your Knowledge of the Book Market
One of the most common pieces of writing advice I heard over the years at children’s writing conferences was “Don’t write to the market.”
But the problem was that I interpreted that advice to mean something else. I thought “Don’t write to the market” meant that I shouldn’t consider the marketplace at all, that I should write what I want and then see where it would fit.
That was a fundamental error on my part.
Have You Made Writing a Habit Yet? Building a consistent writing practice takes time and effort
A few months ago, I set the intention of building a consistent fiction writing practice. I wanted to make it a habit (see my first blog post). I’m about 100 days into this new practice. Dare I call it a habit?
When the News Is Horrible
When the news is horrible and only seems to get worse with each passing day, it can make us pause and wonder if writing fiction is worth the effort. Shouldn’t we instead be encouraging people to vote or writing our legislators or donating money to important causes?
Interviewing Your Characters Yields Juicy Material for Your Novel
I’ve been interviewing my characters as I work on a new middle-grade mystery novel. I started with my villains because I knew less about them than I did about my protagonist, an 11-year-old girl. After seeing how much I discovered about my villains, I decided to use the same approach with Jazz.
Get to Know Your Characters from the Inside
Since I didn’t know my antagonists as well as my protagonist, I decided to interview them. It’s a technique I’ve suggested to several of my book coaching clients too. One client interviewed her antagonist, a non-human character that I couldn’t get a good feel for in her manuscript. The interview she did with him was so powerful. He’s a dark, selfish, narcissistic piece of work.