Author Archive


Posted on June 10, 2012 - by

Beginnings: The First Few Pages

starting a book

How do you start your book?

starting a bookA strong opening is very important to a good story and a good book. Many people glance at the first few pages when thinking about reading a book; if it doesn’t grab them then, you’ve lost a potential reader.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, was to start your book with conflict. Almost immediately. Somewhere in the first chapter, or the first scene, or the first paragraph or even the first sentence. {I often challenge myself to come up with the best first line I can, something that will totally make people want to read more.}

Creating conflict immediately is the fastest way to engage your reader in your story. It often gives you a chance to introduce characters immediately as well. But the key to a good opening, is definitely conflict.

But this goes even further than just “create conflict”. Basically your opening (scene or even chapter) should have some sort of conflict (could be between anyone) which is not only introduced immediately, but developed and resolved right away as well. But during this mini-conflict – there should also have a much bigger conflict introduced as well. Basically by the time the opening scene conflict ends, the larger conflict should have been introduced and be unfolding.

This is how you get a reader engaged and hold them. They will immediately find themselves wanting to know what happens next, what will the outcome be?

First Lines

Just focusing on your first line right now?

Your first line should be something catchy; or something funny. Make it something that grabs attention or makes the reader think or even ask their own questions. Something that lets us see their personality right off the bat is always very good.

A conversation pertinent to the story between the two main characters that might establish personality and relationships will help draw the reader into the story much quicker than just some random line, or even some random conversation.

It’s really important that whatever type of opening line or scene, you choose to open with is related to the story and sets the mood for the rest of the book. Obviously this doesn’t always work, so as long as it sets the mood for what you want to convey during that first part of your story.

How do you find your opening material? How do you start your stories? Do you struggle with this part, and if not – what part is the most challenging for you?


Posted on June 7, 2012 - by

Freelance Writing is NOT an easy job!

freelance writing

freelance writingOne of the things that annoys me most when I am out perusing article websites, blogs and just writing sites in general, is the serious lack of skills from the different writers. I am blessed to have an editor that I work closely with at both of my full time writing jobs, however thankfully I don’t need them to constantly be coming back to me with edits and changes. Why? Because I do my best work all of the time. At least I try.

I’m not talking about the occasional typo, mis-spelled word or run-on sentence. Yes, I am notorious for those as well, but mostly on blogs, definitely not in articles. However, apparently there is someone going around and telling people that this is okay. Huh? Freelance Writing is NOT an easy job, though some think it is. I don’t get it.

I stumbled upon a page the other day where this stupid guy is saying he makes some six figure income and he doesn’t even know how to write (which btw is quite apparent when you read the actual page). The frustrating part is, that it stayed with me. I have thought about that page and what I read several times since reading it.

Awhile back I happened upon a blog - Breakfast at Tiffany’s and she had a post up called Writing is Less Important which definitely caught my attention. When I finished reading it, I wasn’t the least bit surprised at her reaction. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Tiffany read the exact same thing I did awhile back. Go visit her blog entry and you’ll understand. She really pulled the whole thing apart.

Tiffany I am in agreement with you. It is so frustrating and infuriating to have someone telling other writers that they don’t have to be good at what they do. Mhmm… And that is why the skills at these article sites lack terribly. Aha.

Whatever.

Don’t assume that freelance writing is the way to make a six figure income. While I will not deny it is not a possibility. It definitely is. But it takes an awful lot of work to get there. And against contrary belief, you do have to know how to write well.


Posted on May 8, 2012 - by

What are Your Words of Wisdom for Writing

words_of_wisdom

Sometimes when I sit down at my computer, and I am about to pour words into my latest project, a quote or a piece of advice will pop into my head.

Sometimes I can remember where it came from; who said it or where I read it.

Other times, not so much.

The thing is, these little words of wisdom take me far in my writing {and in my every day life, but that’s another blog post}.

When I’m frustrated, I think of the words: Never give up. I’ve only heard that one a million times. But it is indeed true – I know I will never get where I need to go, if I don’t remember that phrase.

What is the best writing advice or best words of wisdom about writing you’ve ever heard and can you remember who told them to you? Or is it just one of those things you’ve heard enough that it could be anyone, including your muse screaming in your ear?

I’m looking forward to hearing what words of wisdom everyone else has to share.


Posted on May 4, 2012 - by

The Week’s Best Writing Posts: Friday, May 4, 2012

twitter for writers

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ”
- Gene Fowler

twitter for writersIt has been forever since I did one of these posts; I think all the way back in September. After noticing some exceptional posts for writers floating around twitter, and the new facelift to the blog, I decided it was time to bring This Week in Writing back. Did you miss some of these? I have collected a lot in the past couple of weeks, hoping to do another post like this – here we are! I’ll try to get more regular about this again, since I always get comments and emails that these are great because they are missed by some.

On Agents/Editors/Querying:

On Character Development & Dialog:

On Genre Specifics:

On Publishing:

On Marketing:

On Revision/Editing:

On Outlining & Plotting:

On Social Networking/Blogging & Other Online Stuffs:

On Writing in General:

On Everything Else (including new, cool things, inspiration, creativity, free things and funny stuff):

Did I miss anything? I’m sure I did. Please leave a comment with a link so others can find it!

Added this week: If you are interested in getting your own posts included, the best way to get me to notice you is for you to tweet me the link. I visit sites daily looking for new articles to post on twitter. I primarily use Twitter to find awesome articles – it’s full of them.

Have a great weekend, and come back next week for more! 


Posted on May 3, 2012 - by

Writing a Book Backwards

Escher Hands

Do you do this?

I know some people write out of order, that isn’t totally uncommon. Sometimes inspiration will hit and I will find myself writing a chapter that goes later in the book, because I can see the entire scene in my head.

The book I am working on now however, while not complete, has been written almost entirely backwards. It wasn’t my intention when I set out, but the ending was what prompted me to write the book, and since the entire ending was clear in my mind, I wrote it.

I was going to go back and begin writing from the beginning, but then I started thinking about what kind of conflict would bring them to the ending – how did they get there? So I wound up writing that scene, which turned into several and before I knew it, I had the last 4 chapters of the book written.

At that point, I decided just to go ahead and try to write the rest of it backwards. No reason why, just that it seemed it was flowing naturally, so I might as well do it that way.

Have you ever done this or am I totally nuts?


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