As a child, I loved reading R.L. Stine. I was captivated by his Fear Street novels and devoured them like a book-loving banshee. However, even HIS earlier work was not as good as his later work. That is not surprising. The more experience, the better you are wielding the written word. When being any kind […]
When I think about the writing process, I think about snack casualties, tweeting, and a lot of keyboard tapping. Writing a novel is a lot of hard work, and it alternates between being difficult and easy. Really, we think we torture our characters, but it’s the other way around. The Importance of Momentum When I […]
If You Got It, Flaw It Perfection does not exist, perhaps that’s why we work so hard to achieve it. It’s only human. It doesn’t mean that we succeed. I know my grammar, yet I still make mistakes. Those pesky errors find ways to slip past my detection system, which is basically just my eyes. […]
Or as I like to call them: Ninja readers. Every writer, no matter how good or bad NEEDS these unmasked heroes. Why? Because feedback makes you a better writer. Yes, ninja readers are amazing. Get yours today! If you call now, you get one more beta-reader FREE. No, unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. How […]
If you’re anything like me, first of all, you’ll be weird. Second of all, you’ll be very creative and unable to stop the parade of ideas from walking all over you. As a writer, why would you want to? I welcome any idea, because I have this secret fear that one day I’ll run out […]
The muse is a cruel mistress that plays by her own rules. Following her is a fool’s errand. It’s her job to make sure she follows you. If you have to wait for inspiration in order to write, who knows when you’ll write again? I know exactly what it’s like when the mind is dominated […]
A lot of my writer friends share that keeping up a blog is a real struggle. The main reason is that you have to keep coming up with something new to share, on a regular basis. Personally, I struggled with this at a certain time as well. It was an incredibly stressful time in my […]
Even the best writer has experienced that writing can be difficult. Whether it’s the plotting part or the writing part, the muse can be a fickle mistress. Every writer can use a little bit of help and there are some resources that can come to the rescue. I’ve listed what I have personally tried out […]
It took me a while to believe in my own writing. Part of that was because first I had to figure out what kind of writer I wanted to be and what my style was. Once you know that, being secure becomes a little bit easier. However, there is nothing wrong with being an insecure […]
Recently I got a question about how I write my characters. Since I write character-driven stories, characters are important. They have to be real, complex, and relatable. I never put pen to paper if I don’t know who they are. If I haven’t had a shrink session with them in my head, then I can’t […]