Inspired by Paris Night Life (Travel & Writing series) by Beth Barany
Last week I shared about Why Paris and how that city is such a rich, evocative place for me. This week, as the ninth in our Travel & Writing series, I’m focusing on how Paris...
Author: Beth Barany
The Character Tag – Do We Know Who’s Who? By Jackie Blain
One of my screenwriting students came in one night with the first draft of his ensemble comedy. Now, those things – ensemble pieces – are notoriously hard to write whether you’re writing a script or a novel because there are so many characters you have to service.
#amwalking #amwriting Self-Compassion + Self-Recrimination, Happy Monday
Happy Monday, everybody! Hello Writers! Hope you’re well and showing up for your writer self and your walking self and all your selves. What counts is that you show up and do the work, whether...
Hook Your Reader Contest for Novelists (May 2015)
Hello Fiction Writer! If you’ve started talking about your novel at all, whether your manuscript isn’t finished yet or you’re an already published author, then you may have experienced the struggle of how to hook...
Book Marketing Resources for the Beginning Novelist by Beth Barany
Check out these Writer’s Fun Zone resources — free mini-lessons — for the beginning novelist. For your author branding, write your Clear Message and share it. Here’s my post on that: how to write your Clear...
Writer Who Walks: End-of-Month Wrap up + Next Month’s Plans (#AmWalking)
Writer Who Walks: End-of-Month Wrap up + Next Month’s Plans (#AmWalking) What counts is that you show up and do the work, whether it be writing, walking, or something else that you’re passionate about....
Interview at Generations Literary Journal with Kiala Givehand
Check out my interview with Kiala Givehand on the Generations Literary Journal Podcast! I give tons of writing tips, and I even read an excerpt from Henrietta The Dragon Slayer! Make sure you subscribe...
Is your character’s motivation strong enough? by Carol Malone
“Trevor’s only wanted to raise her girls and fight for her community nursing program. She didn’t have time to be distracted by the hot fireman she burned years ago by refusing his marriage proposal. If she could just remind herself of her desires each day, it wouldn’t be so hard working closely with him to help his father recover from a stroke.” Take Harte a novel by Carol Malone.
Finding Reality in an Unreal World by Kay Keppler
I’m working on a story in which my protagonist is on an unpaid leave from the CIA. The story concerns an unlikely adventure she engages in during this off time, and the way she handles it helps her to decide if the CIA is the right career choice for her. In a beta read, a friend pointed out that my character could face serious consequences—even prison—merely for making a phone call that wasn’t over a secure channel.
Get Out the Mop and Duster: It’s Time for a Spring Clean by Annmarie Miles
Spring has sprung! Well is has in my part of the world. J The daffodils are out, the days are a bit longer and summer’s coming. Traditionally this is a time when a lot of people do a clear out. It’s off to the Garden Centre or the DIY shop to spruce things up. For some it’s emptying out the cupboards and a splash of paint on a wall or two.
How to Predict the Future – Creating the Science Fiction Novel by Catharine Bramkamp
Many writers are not specifically or even self identified, scientists. Yet we write about science and technology anyway. Why? Because we use it technology, we depend on science and many of us watched Star Trek as kids. What else is there to know?
The Persistent Character by Raina Schell
One day, maybe a year ago, I downloaded one such character. For the purpose of this blog I’ll name him Apollo, because that’s one persistent God, but the character could be anything or anyone. Apollo showed up one afternoon when I was quite literally doing something else entirely. In the spirit of full disclosure I was on Facebook and as often happens on Facebook I read something that annoyed me. But before I could process what I’d read Apollo was there, in my head and he was loud.
Doing Our Own Thing Together by Nevada McPherson
Things have been evolving as I work on my latest graphic novel, Queensgate. You may be able to tell if you’ve read my previous posts that I’m very hands-on when it comes to my work, as I’m sure are many of you folks out there! My graphic novels are so far based on my own screenplays; they’re completely hand-drawn, by me, and I’ve also experienced that extremely steep learning curve that comes from being self-published and having to market and promote one’s own work (though I understand that even if you’re not self-published that’s often the case).
Let Your Characters Walk Like The Animals…by Jackie Blain
A student came into the Writing Center where I tutor the other day with a complaint about his instructor (big surprise!). The student had been using his thesaurus to come up with another word for ‘people’ to go with ‘the Chinese’ and ended up with ‘civilians.’
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