As soon as you sit down to market your work, you need to know what it is that you've written. You may have some idea from comparing your work to other people, but it helps to know what you've written from your writing itself, as just "having romance" in your story doesn't make it a … Continue reading Commercial Fiction vs. Literary Fiction—Which Do You Write and How to Tell the Difference?
Tag: Writing Tips
Nowadays, you can go from "I've got a great idea" to "PUBLISHED" without involving anyone besides yourself. You can do your own editing and proofreading, formatting, cover design, and blurb writing (I'm not saying you should, but it can be done). Now, we've talked about the need for good cover design, and we discussed what … Continue reading Why Your Book Needs Beta Readers
As writers, we're told that we should "Show, Not Tell" all the time, and it's advice that is usually quite helpful. When possible, we need to let a scene unfold before the readers, to where they get to see what happens and to experience the details just as the characters do. But there are times … Continue reading When Just Showing Isn’t Enough
Title: Dawn of a Legend Author: R. K. Lander Genre: Fantasy Blurb (as taken from Goodreads): Book three in The Silvan, a best-selling series by award-winning author R.K. Lander. “Page-turning epic fantasy you will not be able to put down.” A past to claim A power to wield A destiny to fulfil To the enemy, … Continue reading Book Review – Dawn of a Legend
When you write a story, you have time passing, whether it's just a few moments, a few hours, or a few days. Frequently, you have events happening that require you to stick to a particular time table, and if that time table isn't included in the story, readers can object to the plot, feeling that … Continue reading How to Manage Time in Your Novel’s Plot
We've been looking at Les Misérables to see what writings lessons we can glean from it. Last post, we looked at the Plotting and Sub-plotting, and this time, I want to look at the characters. Hugo has an enormous cast of characters in this book, and honestly, there are times when even the most attentive readers … Continue reading Writing Lessons from Les Mis: Characterization
Having just finished a read-through of Les Misérables, I've been struck by the writing. It's a long book at well over 600,000 words, so I definitely wouldn't recommend writing a modern novel of that length, but it's a classic nevertheless. It's been made into dozens of movie versions, beginning in 1897 and continuing onward, with the most … Continue reading Writing Lessons from Les Mis: Plotting and Subplotting
I've been thinking about the romance genre lately, trying to explain what it is that "happens" in a romance story. Obviously, it's about a couple finding each other (or realizing that they already know each other) and reaching their happily-ever-after moment (whether it does or doesn't last is another matter entirely, but unless you write … Continue reading Romance: Two Best-Selling Plot Types
This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog-hop, designed to help encourage authors and foster discussions about writing topics across the internet and the world. This month's question is "How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?" Most of the time, life affects my writing by … Continue reading How Life Intersects with Writing
This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog-hop, designed to help encourage authors and foster discussions about writing topics across the internet and the world. This month's question is "What pitfalls would you warn other writers to avoid on their publication journey?" At first, I wasn't sure which pitfall to talk about—the challenge … Continue reading Writing Pitfalls: Doubt and Discouragement
Andrea Lundgren 