About you Challenge

Sometimes writers have a hard time talking about themselves. Sometimes they don't. Either way, feel free to join in the fun. Copy and paste these questions to your own blog (whether you are a professional writer, an aspiring writer, an accountant, a dog trainer or a receptionist, if you have a blog you are a...

My best piece of advice when you are feeling low

This doesn't only apply to writers, but as a writer it applies. I'm at a stagnant point. Worse actually, because very upsetting news in my personal life has left me really really needing a win with my writing. But it hadn't arrived yet. Optimism can be hard to come by at time when other things...

The Classic writers see your writing rules…

I read in spurts. I go months without a book and then read four or five in a short period of time. There is a reason for this. I have kids to take care of, dinner to cook, a house to clean. And when I'm reading I don't really want to do any of it....

#WQWWC – Writers Quote Wednesday Writing Challenge – Mystery

“When all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.” ― Charles Baxter I've taken a few weeks off from Writers Quote Wednesdays due to life junk (that's the worst kind of junk, IMO) but this week I'm back for this week's theme "mystery". If you are interested in checking out...

Pushing myself

My last manuscript came so easily I know the time has come to push past what I know I can do. I've always enjoyed strong themes, subtle fantasy and literary elements in my stories, but how do I challenge myself to build upon that? The idea came to me in a dream, believe it or...

Researching your Book: Is the internet enough?

Oh we have it so easy today, don't we? Instead of spending hours in the reference section of the library, we have wikipedia and google. We can literally type any question we want into a search engine and get the most direct answer out there. If we need a book we can get it without...

The unformed idea

The majority of my work languishes on my hard drive. I'll never delete it but if I'm honest with myself, I'll probably never complete it either. A great deal of it is unworthy of completion. Ridiculously contrived premises based on books or movies or just my own young frustrations. My first and only screenplay (written...

84,500 words. 1 Month. Done. Bam

Ten tips that helped me accomplish a full length first draft in a month.

Don’t waste your valuable time while you wait

You finished, you edited, you polished, you submitted your first manuscript. Now all your eggs are in a big basket while you wait weeks or months to hear from an agent. You refresh your email every minute for a few weeks before you start to get discouraged. Maybe some requests for partials come in. Maybe...

When things are at their worst, Make them laugh

LCW Allingham

A few years ago my best friend’s husband died.

This is real life.

It was awful. Real life awful. Literally freaking awful.

After the funeral we all sat around at the dining room table, drinking too much wine and laughing our asses off.

Not because we were awful people. Because we were so incredibly sad we had no where else to go at that very moment.

We told jokes. Really tasteless disgusting jokes. We mercilessly teased each other, including the widow. We probably resorted to fart noises, anything really to keep us from falling into a bottomless pit of despair. Anything to help my best friend continue to function in the face of horrific loss.

Now, novels are usually not real life, but they do frequently act as a catharsis for readers. If you have done a good job as a writer, your reader will be invested in your characters…

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