As part of Elizabeth Craig week, I’m guest posting on her blog, Mystery Writing is Murder, with an excerpt from The Art & Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual on a topic close to the hearts of all readers: Fair Play. What is it? Why is it ‘resonant’? And what… Read more“Playing Fair with Resonance: guest post on Mystery Writing is Murder”
Month: October 2011
Dying of envy—the Elizabeth Craig mystery interview
Elizabeth Spann Craig is well-known in the online writing community for her Writers Knowledge Base—the Search Engine for Writers, where she maintains links to all the best posts on writing online, and her weekly Twitterific post, rounding up the weeks’ exchange of writing posts through Twitter on her blog, Mystery… Read more“<em>Dying of envy</em>—the Elizabeth Craig mystery interview”
Grammar expose—using ‘they’ for third-person singular
I don’t usually futz around with grammar issues here, but this one came up and it’s kind of an exception, so I’m going to give you a little grammar lesson today. You all know me well enough to know I don’t make too many grammatical howlers, and you probably also… Read more“Grammar expose—using ‘they’ for third-person singular”
Mining Yourself: guest post on Catherine, Caffeinated
Today I’m guest posting for Catherine Ryan Howard with an excerpt from The Art & Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual. Don’t you ever wonder where to find the stuff of great fiction? Please join us for Mining Yourself.
3 Things You Need to Know About the New Publishing Industry
One day some years ago, my friend Roz Morris over on Nail Your Novel was talking about an issue that’s extremely important to writers breaking into the industry these days: advice on revision. I started to throw in my two cents in a comment and realized quickly that there was… Read more“3 Things You Need to Know About the New Publishing Industry”
Collaboration Between Writing & Music—the Porter Anderson interview
Porter Anderson of Porter Anderson Media is a Fellow with the National Critics Institute, a producer and consultant formerly with the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome and INDEX: Design to Improve Life in Copenhagen. He’s worked in journalism throughout the changes of recent decades at the network of… Read more“<em>Collaboration Between Writing & Music</em>—the Porter Anderson interview”
Talking multiple genres
How many multiple genres are allowed in a story? Are genres to be paired specifically, i.e. paranormal romance, paranormal suspense, dark fantasy? Or are there other multiples that are acceptable? And how many genres are too many?—Barbara Martin First, Barbara, thank you for being so very patient. I know you… Read more“Talking multiple genres”
Rethinking Motivation for Character Arc: guest post on Writer Unboxed
You all know about Writer Unboxed, right? Where Therese Walsh and Kathleen Bolton unleash every day the awesome power of the writers’ mentoring community upon aspiring writers of the world? Where I was hosted last winter with 3 Layers of ‘Layering’ in Fiction, while Therese appeared here with her wonderful… Read more“Rethinking Motivation for Character Arc: guest post on Writer Unboxed”
Making choices between fight or flight
Hi Victoria. I am a young writer, and a total newbie, but not a pantser. I spend months thinking my plot over and getting to know my characters’ inner angels and demons before I ever get to the keyboard. In one of your posts from 2009 you mention that characters… Read more“Making choices between fight or flight”
Hook: guest post on the Book Designer
Joel Friedlander runs The Book Designer blog, where he teaches writers how to navigate the modern world of self-publishing through his decades of experience in the small publishers’ industry. He’s an expert on typefaces, cover design, social media, and self-marketing. He’s the author of The Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for… Read more“Hook: guest post on the Book Designer”