Writing The Care and Feeding of Minor Characters 26 Feb 201526 Feb 2015 Let's talk about minor characters.These are your protagonist’s family members, friends, and coworkers. Important enough to have a name, but definitely not an above-the-title name. They mainly exist to help…
Writing In the Beginning – Starting a New Novel 2 Feb 20152 Feb 2015 My ninth book (Glitched) is with my editor right now and so, it's time for me to start writing the next one. Book number ten will be the second in the…
Books… All About That Pace 28 Jan 201528 Jan 2015 Let's talk about pacing, i.e. the action in your novel. Does it start slow and build to an action-packed climax? Do you hit on your main themes in a regular…
Books… How to write a terrible sex scene 24 Nov 2014 There are valid reasons for writing terrible sex scenes. To show that characters aren't right for one another, or because it's funny. Or you could take these tips for writing bad sex…
Assholes… Writing great bad guys 10 Sep 2014 Just as you shouldn't write a perfect protagonist who is good at everything and always makes the right choice, don’t make your antagonist perfectly evil. Everyone has something not-terrible about…
Writing Researching the Novel – Crowdsourcing 19 Mar 2014 When doing research for your book (and I'm talking strictly about fiction), you basically have three choices: Do it yourself, outsource it or crowdsource it. Crowdsourcing is putting a question…
Writing Breadcrumbs: the art of leaving clues 15 Nov 2013 Writing is hard. Anyone will tell you that. Just sitting down and squeezing your brainthoughts onto a page via your fingers freaking HURTS. And I'm sure that non-fiction has its…
Books… Cover Art: The Christmas Edition 4 Oct 20135 Oct 2013 I know some of you are already bitching "There's Christmas shit next to the Halloween candy!" So let me further assault your eyes. You may know from a previous post…
Books… A Deep Breath — Moving on to the Next Book 28 Jun 2013 I began writing the first Lexy Cooper crime novel Schooled on May 3 2012 and finished the first week of August. It came out on November 6. I started noodling…
Writing Obsession, change, and superstition — tales from the sequel 19 Jan 2013 File this under More Bitching About Writing a Sequel. Over the summer I wrote a post about my writing rituals and the magic number of words I needed to…
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