By:
On:
In: writing
With: 1 Comment

Those Rules, the capital R ones, can stifle a young writer (and by young I mean novice).  You can spend so much time on your first draft making sure that you don’t overuse adverbs, use correct grammar, don’t head hop, include enough description–augh, the list is endless.  You can spend so much time following all of those Rules that you don’t give yourself permission to write badly.  But I promise you this, if you don’t let yourself just freaking write, you will never find your voice. Let your characters say what they need to say.  Infodump if you have to.  That’s right.  I went there. Read More →

By:
On:
In: writing
With: 1 Comment

This is not the sort of post you want someone reading over your shoulder, so I’m going to slip a fold in here.  You click it when you’ve got a few minutes of alone time.Read More →

By:
On:
In: Material girl, writing
With: 2 Comments

These picture posts are becoming commonplace.  Next thing you know, I’ll be uploading illustrations I’ve made in photoshop, like how to connect your printer. Yes, that was an awesome segue, thank you.  For Material Girl Monday, I’m going to talk to you about some of the tools I use to make my brand of magic.  So, picture the first: That’s my big comfy chair.  I’ve been alternately drawing and describing homes and writing character sketches (the big binder on the bottom, with the sheet protectors, the legal pad, the top notebook, and for good measure GMC) and line editing (another black binder and old reliable,Read More →

By:
On:
In: writing
With: 0 Comments

But I promised to discuss the work I’ve been doing on the new WIP and knowing the places in the work. I made a map of the town a month ago and it helped immensely. My heroine grew up in a house, moved into a house she called “the mausoleum” at eighteen when she got married, moved into a tiny apartment at 18 when she got divorced, and finally ended up living above a dance studio in a three bedroom apartment she renovated. Important things happened to her–turning points in her life, if not the story–in these places. I need to see them. I triedRead More →

By:
On:
In: writing
With: 0 Comments

Every year, I tell myself I’m going to do it. Write 50k words in a month. I believe I could do it, given the right motivation and circumstances. You know… probably. This year, it was family court throughout November and I was lucky to get a thing done. But I don’t think I’m going to set myself for NaNoWriMo guilt anymore. I mean, honestly, we all know we should be writing, every day, or at least on some sort of schedule. I think that’s the part of Na…okay, you know what I mean. NNWM. There. If NNWM works for you, that’s fabulous. But, for me,Read More →

By:
On:
In: Material girl, writing
With: 4 Comments

I received this book from a wonderfully sweet friend, so I’m just getting started.  I’ve had it on my wishlist for a long time, because I think that it’s important to be masters of body language.  I guess this comes easily to some. I am not one of those people. For one thing, it’ll keep your character from nodding 180 times in 400 pages, just to have some sort of action.  If you can call nodding action; that’s debatable, I think. I’ll be glad to add a review when I finish, but for now:Read More →

By:
On:
In: writing
With: 1 Comment

Bitch, Ok!  Just Say No. In my last writing post, I listed five ideas to write without sitting down and staring at that damned blinking cursor that smirks quietly at you from the top of the page.  However, those suggestions assumed you had extra time and / or money.  So the last five will focus on what you can do with a crazy life and making an average writer’s wage. (I also explained how I bastardized BICHOK into… Bitch, OK. I’m not proud of it.) Five More Ways Take a notebook and write a scene.  I don’t care about details or where they are or whoRead More →

By:
On:
In: writing
With: 4 Comments

No Bitch, Ok! For Me. There’s a great story behind why I made this list. Also, the whole Bitch, Ok! thing will make more sense. You can read it by expanding the section below or just go straight to the list. [dropdown_box expand_text=”The Story” show_more=”Read” show_less=”Lose” start=”hide”]I got a new car.  It has an MP3 player.  I missed that.  275 songs.  1 disc.  I heart you, technology. So, last week, for the first time (for some crazy reason) I was actually alone.  For several hours.  In my car.  With the Mp3s.  And the characters in my head.  In my imagination.  Except it’s not really quite your imaginationRead More →

By:
On:
In: writing
With: 0 Comments

I’m trying to come up with a post for today’s writing category, at the last minute, and I’m coming up blank here. I’ve had a birthday for a four-year-old, I bought a new car, and entered into a custody dispute. And that was just yesterday. So what do I have for you about writing? I’ll go with metaphors for $500, Alex. I’m going to stick a more tag here because, if I ever were to sell this unwritten piece, it would be a spoiler.  But considering how long it takes me to write a novel, and how long it would take to sell, and thenRead More →

By:
On:
In: progress, writing
With: 4 Comments

I decided to take my idea and run with it.  It ended up being more than a sentence.  But definitely no more than blurbs.  I’m too close to it right now to see if there’s anything useful there, but I promised to share, so here it is.Read More →