Category Archives for "Writing"

I Can Change the Weather

One of my quirks as a writer is that once I’ve written details into a story, I tend to believe that’s the way it is. For example, in this draft of WAR: Retaliation, there’s a once-in-a-century storm about to hit. The wind is racing through the city. The clouds are roiling overhead. But having a too-dangerous-to-drive-in storm […]

Know Your Audience – A Kickstarter Case Study

Here’s an example of the power of an author’s fandom. Author Brandon Sanderson has a Kickstarter campaign running to fund the production of commemorative leatherbound volumes of The Way of Kings, the first novel in The Stormlight Archive fantasy series, to celebrate its tenth anniversary. His goal was $250,000. With 23 days left to go as of the […]

Murderbot: A Lesson in Character Growth

One complaint authors frequently make is that writing fiction has ruined reading for pleasure because they can’t turn off their editor brain to enjoy a story. I usually don’t have that problem. However, every once in a while some aspect of a book I’m reading for pleasure will jump out at me. Sometimes it’s a plot element […]

–of the Action

​As writers, we’re told to start in the middle of the action so the reader doesn’t get bored. We don’t want to give our reader details and backstory that aren’t necessary for understanding the current action. We want the reader to care about the character and understand the situation enough to want to turn the […]

Bringing Back the Medieval Book Curse

Illustrated medieval manuscript from Depositphotos.com.​​On the copyright page of the hardback edition of Leigh Bardugo’s novel King of Scars there’s this little story:​At the foot of the Petrazoi lies a small swamp that smells potently of feet and rancid cooking oil. It is known as the Armpit and its fumes cause dizzy spells, vomiting, and […]

Reluctant to Write

There are some days when I delay working on my writing, putting it off for hours before finally opening up my manuscript. Sometimes I feel as if I don’t have anything exciting to write. Other times I’m not in the mood to write the next scene, or I fear it will take too much out […]

Fleshing Out the Villains

The first draft of my current manuscript was written only from the hero and heroine’s points of view (POV), which is typical for me. I like to get the basic story down before I add additional POVs. Now I’m going through and adding secondary character POVs. That includes adding POVs for the villains. A recent episode of […]

Embrace the Conflict!

I saw an announcement recently for a class on how to write conflict into your stories. The description said something along the lines of how as writers, we often want to protect our characters from any type of conflict.Um. No, I don’t. Anyone who’s read my books knows that the last thing I want is for […]

Story Changes Are Hard!

​One of the weird things about writing fiction is how real the events in my stories feel to me. When I hit a snag in my story and realize that I have to change an event or a character’s personality, I sometimes feel reluctant. A part of me can’t let go because I remember the […]

Characters Do the Darnedest Things

The other night I was writing a chase scene for my latest book. The hero had stolen a box from the bad guys and was running away from them on foot. ​I’d planned to have an exciting chase through the streets, with the heroine joining ​in at some point.  I was writing this just before bed and […]