Branding… Will it hurt? by Autumn Piper

If you’ve loitered around the writing world long, you’ve heard of author branding. But what does it mean? In a nutshell, walk the walk and talk the talk.
Consider the different sections of a bookstore. Each genre will have distinctly different posters and signage in their area. Covers will reflect the type of books, as will [...]

Don’t start with action?

Raise your hand if you’ve heard this before: start your book in the middle of the action?
I see a whole bunch of hands. Mine’s raised too.
One of the blogs I read (sorry, can’t remember which one) pointed me to this blog post about bad writing advice and how you shouldn’t start your story in the [...]

Two Articles and a Worksheet

That sounds like a movie title doesn’t it?
I have some linky goodness for the writers in the audience. A friend sent me this first one:
Adding Power with Rhetorical Devices By Margie Lawson – this one is loooong, but good! seekerville.blogspot.com/2009/10/margie-lawson-welcome-to-seekerville.html
I found this article on scenes when I was contemplating a particularly “blah” scene in chapter [...]

Two Articles and a Worksheet

That sounds like a movie title doesn’t it?
I have some linky goodness for the writers in the audience. A friend sent me this first one:
Adding Power with Rhetorical Devices By Margie Lawson – this one is loooong, but good! seekerville.blogspot.com/2009/10/margie-lawson-welcome-to-seekerville.html
I found this article on scenes when I was contemplating a particularly “blah” scene in chapter [...]

Scene Worksheet to the Rescue

Having trouble with a scene in your latest WIP? Give this worksheet a try: ywp.scriptfrenzy.org/files/scriptfrenzy-ywp/sf_ywp_08_scene_ws_hs.pdf
I found writing out what the scene was all about, who was in it, and even drawing it in the space provided really helped me visualize what was supposed to happen and why. Now I’m ready to write!

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Tension in every scene

Some good advice from Rocky Cole:
You want tension in every scene in your story, whether that tension is overt and visible or subtle and hidden. Tension is achieved by characters wanting different things, having different goals, coming into conflict or having conflict within themselves.
Need more help with your scene? Check out the worksheet I link [...]

The Story Within Guidebook by Alicia Rasley

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
This book, by Alicia Rasley, is one of my favorites for the planning stage. She makes you think to get your characters, conflicts, and plot in gear. This is definitely my Go-To-Book if I’m having trouble getting an outline or imagining where I want my story to go.
The main goal [...]

How goes the writing?

The weekend is almost here! Hopefully you got lots of writing in this week. We’re having a little progress party here at CataU. This is a great chance to blog about your progress, redefine your goals and get some traffic for your blog.
How it works:
1) Blog about your writing progress.
2) Copy this code to your [...]

April Class: Take Your Book from Good to Sold

******PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED AND ENCOURAGED!!********
WritersOnlineClasses.com is proud to present one of its two online April classes. To follow are the details of the April 15 – May 15 class:
CLASS: Take Your Book from Good to Sold
INSTRUCTOR: Shirley Jump
4-week class: April 15-May 15 COST: $30
Registration ends April 14, 2010
CLASS: TAKE YOUR BOOK FROM [...]

Would you pay $75,000 for your book?

Something to think about… I came across this passage while looking something up on google.
Publisher’s Lunch quoted a large New York publisher as saying it cost them an average of $75,000 to produce one print run. Would you pay $75,000 for your book? Why or why not? Source: www.drakevalleypress.com/workshops/rewriting.htm
It got me wondering, would [...]