Intuitive Editing: A Review

One in an occasional series of writing book reviews. Today, I’ll talk about Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Martin. I came across this book when I went to the home of a fellow author who was hosting a write-in. She had very cleverly put out all of her craft books...

Writing to Your Strengths

I am a very strong believer in trying new things—whether it be a new food, a new experience, or something new with your writing. With just about every book I write, I try to use a new tool or a new way of organizing my writing. I try new programs—Scrivener, Atticus,...

Showing Emotion

Continuing on with the Emotion Theme: We’ve all been there: reading a book, looking forward to the exciting bit where the hero(ine) really gets to show their chops. We know it’s coming, and we’ve been looking forward to it since we figured out that they’ve got to...

Bringing Emotion

When I first started writing, I was told that if my character cried on the page, my reader wouldn’t. If I wanted to bring tears to my reader’s eyes, my character’s eyes needed to be dry while they were completely torn up inside. As with every “Rule” of writing, you...

Writing Series

There’s nothing nicer than finishing a great book and then realizing that it’s part of a series. You know that you’ve got so many more books to read—yay! But what is it that’s holding that series together? There are different types of series: those where there’s one...

Placing Your Reader Into Your Story

One of the best things about reading a novel—at least in my opinion—is escaping from my world, my life. When I read I want to stop being me sitting in my home and become someone else somewhere else doing exciting things, having fascinating experiences, falling in...