Let’s talk about defining your writing. I don’t mean genre, style, voice, or any of those other craft-imposed definitions. This post is about what you want to be known for in your writing. What will readers say about your stories? Readers will determine your place in history, and that is Read more
People say setting, character, and plot are the three main aspects of stories, but I want to point out the ugly stepsister in the corner. Exposition. It gets a bad reputation in the writing world, and that’s because most don’t do it the right. Exposition is the explanations inserted into Read more
The basic triad of writing a tale is setting, character, and plot. Without all of these you cannot write a complete story. The point is to transport readers to another world and make them fall in love with it. Each part of the triad has a job to fulfill so Read more
Already we’ve covered character voice and narrator voice, and now it’s time for the last post of the series—writer’s voice. This is the voice that is woven throughout your entire collection of writings. It’s the voice that publishers and agents are mentioning when they say they want a writer with Read more
Last week I went over creating distinct character voices for your story, and now we will look at narrator voice. This one is not often addressed since it can be a combination of character voice and writer voice, but there are many facets to it that I think deserve attention. Read more
If I had to name one topic about writing that is the most mentioned and the least quantifiable, it’s voice. Publishers want a unique writer voice. Agents look for distinct character voices. Readers dislike reading abrasive narrator voices. On an on, everyone talks about voice; however, very few people can Read more
Guess what? It’s time to hit on my favorite topic again. Conflict! I’ve already covered types of conflict such as man verses man, man verses nature, etc. This post is going to cover the idea of layering conflict. Life is not simple. Every day we play multiple roles in society Read more
Let’s address the elephant in the room. We are authors, not web designers. Yet, most of us have or will have to set up and run our own website. We aren’t paid enough to hire a professional to do it. So, how do you make your website look professional while Read more
I’m working on editing my manuscript, and part of that is eliminating excess words. These fluff words can usually be deleted or replaced with fewer but more descriptive words. By eliminating them, you cut down your word count and make the text clearer. Below is a list of words I Read more
Writing an author bio is one of the hardest things authors do for their websites. We write stories about other people and places, and we think our own life is boring. Unfortunately, the world wants to know who we are and we have to tell them. Fortunately, we are storytellers. Read more