Stuck in Your Story? It’s not Writer’s Block
What can seem like writer’s block can be a story structure problem. Learn how to get going again.
so you want to be a writer?
so you want to be a writer? Charles Bukowski so you want to be a writer? Charles Bukowski, 1920 - 1994 if it doesn’t come bursting out of youin spite of everything,don’t do it.unless it comes unasked out of yourheart and your mind and your mouthand your gut,don’t do it.if you have to sit for hoursstaring at your…
Protagonist Deep Dive
Image source: Wikimedia How Does Your Protagonist Stack Up? You know your protagonist. Presenting your favorite character to the reading public and differentiating him or her to readers is challenging. You want your readers to like your protagonist as much as you do.I decided to do a little experiment. I chose some relevant or similar…
When A Review Helps Fine Tune A Story
How A Review Can Change Your Novel Details Careful reading of reviews can give a novelist clues about fine-tuning the novel and how to improve future stories. Thoughtful reviews can even trigger action to change. I work hard to make my historical information as accurate as possible, down to making sure the Latin words are…
Header One Tag for Weebly
Weebly’s Big Fail: Missing Header 1 Tag Many authors want a simple and good looking website to post their author bio, books, blog articles, and media kit. And most authors would rather be writing than messing around with setting up a website. Free and inexpensive alternatives like wordpress.com, Wix, and Weebly offer a simple solution…
Update on Using StoryShop
StoryShop the Creative Planner for Novels I’ve been using StoryShop since I started as a beta tester in June 2016. I love it! I’m a big believer in planning before you write and StoryShop is a creative tool for brainstormers like me. StoryShop allows me to capture and idea. That’s great because writers have ideas….
The Story in the Scene
The Mini-Story that Builds Your Novel Each scene is a building block to your story. And, each scene is a mini-story with the same components as the main story. A central character An obstacle A setting An emotional arc A beginning, middle, and end But the scene has one more function: Move the story forward…
Live Author Interview for The Roman Heir
The Roman Heir in Conversation I’m speaking with avid reader Oleg Moskalensky about The Roman Heir on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 3 PM Pacific Time. (Convert to Your Time). The wonderful thing for authors is that readers come from all vocations. Oleg is an IT consultant and developer of specialized programs and apps for business. The…
Countdown to Publish
Pre-Publication Activities The Roman Heir is due for publication on July 22. The book went out to advance readers over two weeks ago, I’m getting feedback. That means I’m doing some editing like rewording or fixing those gosh darn typos. I’m extremely grateful to these advance readers who give me early feedback.This is just the…
When Your Characters Speak
The Writing Process with Jo Nesbø Interview with Jo Nesbø by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association detailing his beginnings in childhood as a storyteller and his writing process.My favorite quote is the one above: You don’t really know your characters until they start speaking. Tweet: You don’t really know your characters until they start speaking….