A backlog of Hi Susan e-mails prompted me to respond to one. Nina send me this- I’ve been working on my story for a two weeks. Prior to that I spend months, outlining, plotting but now I feel I want to take it in another direction. Should I throw this one away and…
Time for another dip into the e-mail stack of Hi Susan questions. This time it’s from Sharon who asked? I’m a new writer and I’m confused about how long to make each chapter in my story, any tips? I get asked this question a lot so the reason I decided to feature it here.…
Thought we’d dive into another Hi Susan e-mail and this one is from Leslie. I sit down with every intention to write but nothing gets done. Is there anything else I can do so I feel less guilty? First tip, don’t feel guilty. When I went through my writing drought, I experienced first, panic, and…
People working from home is the new norm this week so it wasn’t too surprising to find lots of Hi Susan e-mails asking me if I had any tips. I was lucky enough to ease into working from home because my last employer let me do about 50% of the work from the home…
The Hi Susan letters are stacking up so I thought I’d tackle one this week. This one arrived from Peter who asked… I think I might have jumped on the self-publishing bandwagon a little too late. After doing some research, it looks like just about everyone is a self publisher these days. Should I…
The Hi Susan letters are piling up so I thought I’d devote this Tuesday to responding to one of them. Luanne sent me this one… I’m thinking about writing my story in present tense. Do you think it’s a good idea or should I avoid it at all costs? This is a question with no…
Time once again to dive into the Hi Susan e-mail pile. I picked this question from Marc who wrote… I’m just starting out as an author and researching the type of book I want to write. Should I go with similar books that I see on the bestseller lists? An easy answer, no. Sounds counterproductive to…
Time for another Hi Susan and this one was asked by Kimberley… I have a ton of ideas rattling around in my head. First of all, how do I make sure I don’t forget any gems? Second question, how do I determine if one’s good enough to become a story? I loved these questions…
The Hi Susan letters are filling my e-mail so let’s dive into another one. This was sent by Ashley who wrote- I had a bunch of beta readers look at my manuscript and each person had the same comment, my dialogue stinks. Is there anyway I can improve that skill? Absolutely, anything that’s your Achilles’…
The Hi Susan e-mails are piling up so I thought I’d answer one today. Jenny asked the following- Is it okay to use real people as characters in your story? While you want all your characters to be appear as close to real life people as possible, portraying someone that a real life person could recognize as…
