Starting Right

Starting Right

It’s been a while since I’ve written about how to start a novel but since I’m working with a new coaching client who is going through this right now, I thought it couldn’t hurt to share what I’m doing with her. How you begin a novel very...
Editing: The Big Picture

Editing: The Big Picture

I am at That stage of writing my novel: Editing. You either love editing or hate it. It is taking your words and ideas and refining them. It is looking at the forest after you’ve spent months in the weeds. It’s hard. It’s painful. But it can be...
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...
Should Fiction Writers use AI Tools?

Should Fiction Writers use AI Tools?

I could have written this article with AI or had AI write it for me. The question is, is that right? Ethical? How much AI should an author use? To answer this question, I did some research into AI writing tools. Let me tell you, there are a lot! A lot more than I...