Who doesn’t have trouble with dialogue, at least some of the time? It seems like some writers are just born with an ear while the rest of us work hard to develop ours. It used to be that we could go to coffee shops and listen to/make notes about the conversations going on around us, but coffee shops have become the new study hall, and conversations happen via text.
I wrote last time about the evolving process of creating my first two graphic novels, and how I plan to break this next one down even more into manageable bites that don’t feel so overwhelming. Now I’m considering breaking the story into three parts: a triptych as it were.
When you’re a fledging writer you will probably receive two kinds of input. The first is constructive criticism and the second is unconstructive criticism or as I like to call it = Bull$h!t
Remember learning to walk? Of course you don’t, or if you do, you’re among the very few. That “not remembering” might be why, as a writer, we leap, hit the wall, and fall down a lot. We need to take baby steps.
Plotting is hard for many people. Sage advice says to start with characters, and when you know those people well enough, their behavior alone will launch the conflict. But you have to get to know them, and to do that, you need to start somewhere.
On top of holiday madness, we relocated from Ireland to the UK. So for a while, the only writing I was doing was putting numbers on labels and sticking them to boxes. Not very creative, but I’ll be glad I did it when I’m finally reunited with my belongings. 🙂
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
What inspired me to write the Isles of Olympus series? Originally I thought I would only create one book out of this tale, but it grew to be so much more, and so a trilogy was made. I had toiled with this story idea for about three years before actually sitting down and committing myself to writing it, I wanted something that my children would read, and something that I would enjoy as well as I was finding it hard to find books to capture my interests.
Book trailers are visual depictions of a book’s storyline, sometimes made by fans, which are a great way to get readers enthused. But have you ever considered making a book commercial?
In the spirit of NaNo past I wanted to focus this month’s article on “how to take it with you.” For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writer’s Month where the challenge is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. If you haven’t done it before I suggest you do!
In Jane Austen’s timeless classic, Pride and Prejudice, we all detest the dashingly handsome, but stuck up, Mr. Darcy in the beginning. After a poorly-contrived declaration of love at Rosings Park and a secret act of kindness, we all realize we’ve misjudged Mr. Darcy and fall madly in love with the sensitive, lovestruck gentleman. This is what I affectionately call The Darcy Arc. It has worked in The Twilight Saga with Edward and Bella, The Hunger Games with Peeta and Katniss, and even Sex in the City with Mr. Big and Carrie.
A successful Darcy Arc can be accomplished in seven steps.
As I begin art work on my third graphic novel, I realize there are things I learned from creating the first two that will definitely influence the way I work on this one. If you’re involved in a long project of your own you know that completing it is a daunting task and one that sometimes looks so difficult it’s easy to get discouraged.
It’s a busy season for us all, and so easy to get caught up in everything that has to be done at this time of year. I know I struggle to write when I am distracted and flustered with a to-do list that is longer than the page I’m writing it on.
As a book publicist I am always on the lookout for effective inexpensive ways to reach book buyers. One way is to tap into the power of Amazon by using Listmania lists. How?
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