Tag: writing
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Chapter Titles or Chapter Numbers?
It was my wife that put me on to this one. One of her pet peeves is when authors only used numbers to differentiate between chapters. That is … Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, etc … As she says, it’s extremely boring and not very useful. She loves it when authors take the time…
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A monologue in a novel?
Do writers put monologues in novels? I’m sure they do. Or they have. My wife, who is a voracious reader, can’t remember any long monologues in the hundreds of books that she has read — at least not the type of monologue I’m talking about. I like monologues. They are great in plays – a…
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Thinking is Writing (aka: writing in a pool)
Thinking is writing. I’ve said this before, but the longer I’ve been a writer the truer it becomes. (Sometimes to the detriment to the people around me. I am not ignoring you on purpose.) A writer friend mentioned yesterday that I should do some writing without paper, pencil or device. I took the advice. I…
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Speed Writing. Speed Publishing. A Great Afternoon.
Besides being a writer, I’m a teacher. Sometimes those two facts collide. Like yesterday. It was at the beginning of the high school-wide parent-teacher conference when I was sitting at my desk minding my own business. A colleague, who is in charge of the forensics team, came to me with an urgent request: could I…
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Now what? Novel four in a waiting game.
This is an exciting time for any novelist – a second draft of my latest novel is complete and I am now sending it off to some trusted readers for feedback. Exciting, yet scary. No one else has even seen a word of this novel, and now about eight people will be receiving it, tasked…
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I’m sure my writing is uneven because my brain is uneven
Before bed last night, I clicked on Scrivener to read over a chapter from my new novel. I was tired and had few expectations for greatness as my blurry eyes started scanning down the page. And then the strangest thing happened, words flew randomly out of my head, and they made sense. Some even bordered…
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I’d Rather Write a Novel than a Summary of that Novel
I’m at it again. One of my most frustrating times of the year. Writing the dreaded “blurb” that will become the back of my novel or the description on Amazon or just the pitch that I’ll use with reviewers. I’m nearly at the point of sending the draft of my fourth novel out to some…
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I wanted to write pretentiously.
This post is kind of a continuation of what I was talking about yesterday: the four things I’ve learned about novel writing. But I feel the need to expound a little more on one of the topics. I remember in the past when I tried to write, I would become very frustrated because when I…
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Writing Using Third Person Limited Point of View: I hope I chose wisely.
I’m in the home stretch of writing my fourth novel. I’m excited about the possibilities that this novel has. It’s unique and interesting, and, believe it or not, it’s my first novel ever that I at don’t even mention Vietnam! Surprising, I know! This is very much a novel about one character’s journey in a…
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A Follow-up on my Goodreads Advertising
A couple days ago I posted how I had written a Goodreads ad which, at the time, had not received even one click after a couple weeks of being in circulation. It takes special talent to write an ad that poorly. I feel honored. Well, as an update, my new ad just started in circulation…
