Some of my favorite books make up part of a series. I love reading them and following a character I’ve grown to love. I love writing them too. I’ve created so many series, I’m ashamed to say, I’ve lost count. What do I love most about them. They’re fun to create, I can grow a…
Tag: how to write a novel
How Many Words in a Novel?
One question I get asked all the time is, how long should my book be? Simple answer only you, the author knows that. A great book is always going to be the perfect length when all the right chords are struck. That being, a character or characters the reader can identify with and who…
Free Writing Class
Many of you know I teach online classes exclusively for OIRW which is a chapter of the Romance Writers of America. I always try to add new classes each year. I brainstormed ideas for 2020 and came up with the idea of teaching a three month writing retreat where all classes are taught online. Everything…
Get To Know Your Characters before You Write Your Novel-Part Two
Here’s the second part of Beth’s guest post… Interview Your Characters Imagine one of your characters is sitting across the table from you, sipping a beverage, and looking at you. Keep your story in mind as you ask questions. Interview them and take notes. If you don’t know your story at all yet, all the…
Creating Characters Who Matter
Welcome to today’s guest blogger, Merrilee Robson whose post focuses on the characters we create… A magazine editor recently commented that a secondary character in one of my short stories didn’t seem very upset about the death of another character. My first reaction was, “Well, of course she’s upset. Her best friend just died!” But…
Keep On Writing
I’ve been sorting through some of my old files and I came across this short article I wrote for, well, I can’t remember because it’s been that long. Best thing is it’s still relevant and fits in with the summer writing challenge so here it is… Raise your hand if you’ve begun writing a book. Now…
Summer Writing ‘Retreat’
After sitting outside reading for most of Sunday afternoon, I came up with an idea for summer. Many people have an idea for a story, lots of people say they’re going to write a book, and yes, even published writers like myself, have unfinished manuscripts sitting on their computer(or gathering dust on a shelf)….
Friday Ramblings From An Author-The Countdown to NaNoWriMo Begins
Oh no, it’s snowing, breezy and cold. I always try to find an upside to everything and today I’m telling myself it means I’ll spend more time inside writing! NaNoWriMo begins on Wednesday. Who’s taking part? I might try and finish my mystery and also I have a brand new project. Someone asked me to…
NaNoWriMo-Days 28, 29 and 30
My apologies for not posting tips for the last couple of days but I got busy formatting books and trying to add more words to my NaNoWriMo story. It’s the final day of the challenge and while I haven’t finished the story, I have written 50,000 words plus this month which leads me into the…
NaNoWriMo-Days 21 and 22
It’s almost the homestretch. My tip for the day is just silence the inner critic, don’t second guess yourself about whether the story is good or bad, just write, just get it written.