When ‘In Medias Res’ Works, and When it Doesn’t
You may have heard conventional writer wisdom dissing action beginnings: car crashes, police chases – everything bad happening at the opening, right up to and including Armageddon. I’m not here to do that. I mean, think about it. Thousands of movies start that way, right? Remember though, movies are visual storytelling. They are usually faster-paced…
Read MoreRandom Recommendations for Writers
You know when you tell your friends about the latest life hack you discovered? This is the writer equivalent. The coolest, bestest stuff I can’t live without. And no, no one paid me for an endorsement – these are things I believe in. Blogs & Info: The Passive Voice – ‘a lawyer’s thoughts on authors,…
Read MoreAuthor as Brand in 2021
I was alerted to the following video, and if you have the time, watch it. Totally agree with Alexa Donne: The good, the bad, the ugly. I’m going to address them backwards (because, as with my books, I’ll never leave you in a bad place). Oh, and by the way, this will be mostly slanted…
Read MoreQueries – They’re Not Just for Agents
I’m teaching my Submissions That Sell! class at Lawson Writers Academy the whole month of March (click the link to check it out). When you think of queries and submissions, you think agent, right? But nowadays a query is good for a lot more than that. You can use it to submit to small presses…
Read MoreNo blogging today
Sorry everyone, for the first time, I’m going to have to skip the blog on a Monday morning. The snowpocalypse dictated that I got nothing done last week. We are thankful, it could have been much worse, but we were without water for four days, and I’m still cleaning up. Thinking of those with broken…
Read MoreOptions to Stay Organized
I am a naturally organized person. Before I married the Chaos of the Universe, I used to be able to find anything I owned in the dark! My bookshelves are by author, then title order, and my counters are clutter-free. I don’t get credit for the skill – I came in with it. But I…
Read More‘Meaty’ Stories, and How to Write One
I watched The Dig on Netflix last night, after several writer friends told me it was good. It was, and it got me thinking about stories that you think are about one thing, but are really about something else. Spoiler alert – I will tell the ending! If you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer:…
Read MoreA Tool to Protect You and Your Writing in Hard Times
Okay, let’s have an honest discussion here. We’ve been at this pandemic thing for over a year now. We’ve been sick, terrified, and TP deprived. We’ve been nowhere since we can remember, and if it weren’t for Netflix, we’d have totally lost our shit long ago. And that’s not even counting the chaos in our…
Read MoreTrust Your Voice
In 2004, Christopher Booker published The Seven Basic Plots. There have been others who’ve put forth other numbers, but let’s just agree; whether it’s six, seven, or twenty, it means that your plot isn’t going to be unique. So what’s the use of slaving away, if someone has already written your story? Ah, but they…
Read MoreThe Edit That May Kill You – and Why to Soldier On
I’m writing a women’s fiction. Again. I’m glad I haven’t kept track of how many times I’ve rewritten this one and I’m not looking it up. because I’m not a masochist. I wrote it the first time. I loved it. My agent loved it. Editors? They loved the story and the secondary character, but not…
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