Nov 23 2015

Inventing That Interesting Secondary Character

 

I love a good secondary character. If the main characters are the meat of your story, the secondary characters are the seasoning that flavor it and give it spice and their relationships to the major characters are what give the story its depth.

Not only can they add comedic relief (like the lovestruck first mate, Mr. Barton in Eight Nights At Sea or Useless the cat in Someday in Dublin) but they can also give you an extra punch in the heart (like Sami – the young girl who idolizes my heroine in my newest novel, Windsinger).

Continue reading →

Nov 20 2015
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Book Excerpt: Someday In Dublin #romance

“Took you long enough, luv.”
Michael’s voice, cloudy with sleep, reached her as she stepped quietly back into the bedroom.
“Sorry to wake you,” she said. “I guess I’ve finally adjusted to the time change. I was wide awake so I figured I’d get a shower.”
He gestured to the cat sitting on his chest. “You left me here with no one but a cat for company and now she’s taken over.” Continue reading →

Nov 19 2015

Resource Thursday: Writing The Damn Book #amwriting #writing

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Nina Amir tells us how to write a good book in 30 days. (This entire site has a lot of good resources, as well)

Thoughts about “Thought Verbs” from Chuck Palahniuck, author of “Fight Club.”

Creating crisis in your story

The Shape of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut

And finally, here’s one of my favorite paragraphs about writing:

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage them with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums. The crash of the cymbals – sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

-Gary Provost

Nov 17 2015

What To Do When You Get A Bad Review

It’s going to happen.

You don’t hunt your critic down and bash them over the head with a wine bottle, no matter how badly you’d like to do just that. You don’t have to like it. In fact, you can really, really be upset about it.

But then you need to back off, and look at it for what it is.

Was any of the criticism constructive? Can you learn anything from it? If they found a certain part of the book dull or a certain character unbelievable or a certain plot twist too predictable or outlandish – was there some merit in that? Be honest. Take notes. Look at whatever you’re working on now with fresh eyes. It’s all a learning process. Continue reading →

Nov 16 2015

Notepads And Post-Its And Scribbles On Napkins – Writing Can Be Messy Business

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I have books all over the place.

I’ve learned (as I’ve become stronger and more prolific with my writing) that getting a glimmer of an idea is gold. Closing your eyes as you lay in bed or changing the radio dial as you’re at the wheel of your car or reaching for the spatula as you’re fixing dinner and telling yourself “I’ll have to remember that for later” is one of the stupidest damn things you can do as a writer.

You probably won’t remember it. At the very least, you won’t remember every juicy nuance of it, not like you will when it’s fresh in your brain.

I’ve had some amazing, bestselling ideas slip away from me like that. At least, I think they were. I’ll never know now because I don’t remember what the hell they were, other than they were brilliant. Goddammit. Continue reading →

Nov 13 2015

#OnceUponATime FanFic Friday: Killian And Emma’s Nightclub Adventure #Oncers #CaptainSwan

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These Dreams is one of my most popular fanfics, and definitely one of my favorites as well. Sending Killian and Emma into the dreamscape, falling in and out of their own dreams and all the dreams of the people in Storybrooke – it was such an adventure to write. The story really took over and became so much more than I’d envisioned at it’s start – especially since the readers were PM’ing me ideas!

This particular scene is part of a larger chapter of disjointed, crazy dream stuff (including a bit with the two of them riding talking dolphins). Any weird thing can happen in the dreamscape – that’s what makes it so magical! Emma and Killian find themselves in a bar, and the rest is just plain fun: Continue reading →

Nov 12 2015

Resource Thursday: Social Media Navigation & Marketing #writingtips #writing

Today we’re going to talk about social media. UGH.

Really. Just…ugh.

It’s a necessary evil, and even entertaining a lot of the time, but the truth is it takes time and energy and focus that you’d really rather be putting toward your writing, if you had your ‘druthers. Still, there are great tools out there that help you build and engage with your audience, and you’re a fool if you don’t take advantage of them.

Here are a few resources that have really helped me as I navigate my way through the social media maze:

The Social Media Cheat Sheet – INCREDIBLY helpful guide to picture sizes and formatting constraints on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

5 Low-Cost Social Media Marketing Strategies for Authors – Great if you don’t have a lot of money to throw at a marketing program.

102 Hashtags Smart Writers Are Using – I started using some of these faithfully and doubled my Twitter following with people solidly in my target demographic very quickly.

17 Tools That’ll Take Your Social Media Marketing To The Next Level –  A list of various downloads and apps that can help you with content and scheduling.

Dan Pearce’s 100 Blogging Tips – Dan is a blogger with a strong viral presence, and his tips are spot-on if you want to build and engaging blog.

Now go forth and be retweeted, reblogged, liked, pinned, hashtagged and hopefully…read!