What Are The Two Functions Of Scenes In A Book?
In this post, when I say scene, I’m not referring to a setting but to part of a sequence of events. A scene in a book is marked by breaks. These can be a chapter break or just a line Read more
Author Business: The Little Details Of Business Finances
I wanted to title this post All The Little Pesky Things You Have To Do When Running A Business That You Don’t Think About Until You Do It, but I thought that title would be too long. That’s the essence Read more
Author Business: 3 Additional Steps After Registering A LLC
Last week I shared about my process to register a LLC, and this week I will cover three more steps to take once you are officially a business owner. These will allow you to do financial transactions, and they are Read more
Author Business: Why And How To Open A LLC
You have a finished book, and you’re ready to pitch it to agents or publish it yourself. Congrats! But before you do that, you may need to think about finances and how you want to get paid. You can sell Read more
A Steep Price (1st Place in Short Story Contest)
This is the full version of the story. If you would like to read the shorter version that won 1st place in a local writing competition, click here and scroll to the bottom of the post. Despite what you’ve heard, Read more
Reducing Word Count: Losing That 10% (Or More)
I’ve heard it said several times by professionals that the final draft of your book should be at least 10% shorter than your first draft. This happens because you cut out the excess—both in scenes and in words. It may Read more
What Are Foil Characters? (Examples Included)
As writers, we use foils all the time in our writing without realizing it. A foil is when you put opposites close together in order to make one stand out more. I’ve heard that the term comes from jewelers who Read more
Give Up The GOST Of Your Story: Synopses For Editors And Agents
I’ve covered the aspects and tips of writing book blurbs for readers, and now I want to give a little advice for composing synopses for editors and agents. These professionals will need more than just an emotional reaction to your Read more
Failed Expectations: You Can’t Prepare For Everything
When I decided to become an author, I took the warnings very seriously. I would get thousands of rejection letters. It would take years to find an agent willing to take my first book. Publishing one book didn’t mean I Read more
5 Tips For Writing Book Blurbs (And 1 Simple Formula For Identifying Conflict)
As I mentioned last week, the point of the book blurb is to elicit an emotional reaction and make people want to read more. We already talked about the five main parts of a blurb, and this week I want Read more