Day 26 – Check in!

Okay folks. It’s late. We’ve been at this for 26 days. I’m sure you’re tired. Your fingers might hurt.
But let’s push hard. Let’s pick up the pace. Push hard. Write, write, write. Before you go off to write, tell us where you’re at. Cheer on your fellow challengers. Check out a few blogs. And then [...]

Dialog Tags by Isabel Sharpe

This isn’t an inspirational blog so much as what I’d call a “cautionary” article on one of my biggest pet peeves: Unnecessary dialog tags. I know many, many published authors love dialog tags I would consider unnecessary, so I’m not going to tell you it’s wrong to use them, but they drive me insane.
“Does [...]

So You Want To Be In Pictures

by Mary Eason

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or perhaps hiding out in the same cave as Osma, the chances are you’ve seen one book trailer at the very least. If you are an author, you may have tried your hand at creating one, or if your talents don’t tend to gravitate in that [...]

Get your house in order

by Isabel Sharpe
Monday May 12th was the day I’d assigned myself to start my next project. Either I was going to brainstorm a new proposal or begin writing a novella that isn’t due until August. That morning I woke up, cranky and scattered. The house was a mess, I was recently returned [...]

Day 22

Okay…a little over a week to go, where are you at? Me…I’m way behind. So far behind I barely see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I am still trucking along. I write at lunch. I think about the story constantly, write notes on plot twist and turns. I write at night [...]

Day 19

You’re all a little over halfway through the challenge and don’t you feel great about it? Give yourselves a hand! Bring out the chocolate and champagne. And let’s have some sexy guys do the serving, shall we?But the real party will be at the end of the month.
By now, you should have a good handle [...]

Esstentials for the writer’s office

A while back I discussed the “space” in which we write. Today we’re going into the essentials every writer should have. Which includes decor, my favorite part!
Here’s an article about the ergonomics of being a writer and how to outfit your office for comfort.
5 easy steps to organize your office.
I don’t know about you, [...]

Day 18

Here are a few nuggets to get you through the day.
I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth
Julie Leto has another interesting article about writing the book of your Voice rather than the book of your Heart. Read [...]

Day 17 – Words of Wisdom

I’ve got a few words of wisdom for you from the talented Julie Leto. In her article Layering and Texturing (which is great btw and you can read it here.) she mentions a few things she says to post over your monitor. And I totally agree.
1) DON’T GET IT RIGHT, GET IT WRITTEN.
2) YOU CANNOT [...]

IN DEFENSE OF SLOWNESS

Okay. Everyone is busy writing away, right? You’re cranking out the pages, tallying up your word counts, chortling at how productive you are.Or maybe not. Maybe some of you are lurking in the background, afraid to post because you haven’t written that much. You started with the rest of us, but [...]