Why should I care? Why should you?

Why should I care? Why should you?

Rachel Toalson wrote a wonderful blog post for Writer UnBoxed. It’s about getting to the heart of your story — why you wrote it and why readers will remember it long after they finished reading it. Sometimes it’s really hard finding the heart of your story. If you...
Writing Across Genres

Writing Across Genres

Does your mystery novel have a romance in it? Does your speculative fiction have a mystery element? Does your romance take place on another planet? It seems that there’s a lot of cross-genre writing going on. I attribute this to indie- publishing. Traditional...
Historical Accuracy is Fiction

Historical Accuracy is Fiction

There was recently a discussion on the Regency Fiction Writers’ forum concerning historical accuracy. For a group whose courses mostly teach accurate historical detail (everything from architecture to dancing to cookery), there were a number of authors who commented...
Making Villains Real

Making Villains Real

What makes a villain? Does someone like the mustache twirling character from cartoons come to mind? Or perhaps it’s Mr. Goldfinger (pictured here)? Is your villain a thoroughly evil character or just someone who wants to ensure your protagonist doesn’t get what they...
Do your characters have to grow?

Do your characters have to grow?

It’s an honest question. You might think that because I’m a romance writer and one who is always talking about goal, motivation, and conflict that I would be standing here screaming “Yes! Characters must always grow. They must always learn something and develop as a...
Archetypes

Archetypes

Archetypes. They’re not stereotypes! I’m delving into creating characters for my next Zodiac novel and fooling with archetypes. Definitions Stereotypes are an oversimplification of a type of person—the evil, mustache twirling villain who does bad things for the pure...