Tag: writing
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I clearly don’t know how to write ad copy yet.
I wrote this ad for Goodreads: “Please read my book. It’s very boring. It’s got three, two-star reviews.” Okay, that’s not exactly the wording, but the effect of the actual ad that I wrote would have been the same. I’ve dabbled in Goodreads Self-Advertising a time or two with mixed results. I’ve gotten plenty of…
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An Extremely Unscientific Writer’s Scale
An Extremely Unscientific Writer’s Scale: Professional. Amateur. Hobbyist. Wannabe. Awesome passionate dreamer. Devoted Craftsman. (or craftswoman) What exactly is an indie author? Who am I? I’ve said before on this blog that I write because I love it. I am compelled to write. I cannot not write. I have stories that I want to tell,…
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Writing Session: Follow Your Story No Matter How Long or Short
It felt good to get in a solid writing session on my fourth novel this afternoon. I probably tallied 2000 words as the story heads for its conclusion. It’s now upwards of 43,000 words and will comfortably cruise into the novel territory before I write its final words. But I have discovered that I’m now…
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Be True to Yourself in Your Writing
I was reading an article from a writing website which was talking about the habits of successful writers. On the whole, I agreed with many of their ideas and suggestions, but one of them led me to pause, and I couldn’t quite completely agree with them. What was it? Research the market and write in…
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Me in my Former Glory: Researching on a Motorbike
Here I am in my former glory, sitting on the side of the road in Vietnam only 52 km from home. This was before selfies. It was actually taken with a camera that had film. And look! I’m wearing a watch so that will tell you it was before I had a cell phone. I…
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Creative Writing: The Tried and True becomes the Tried and New
There is nothing new under the sun. No new plots to uncover. No new experiences to be told about. Creativity is in the realm of re-hashing the common and already told into a refreshing and new take. Creativity is taking that situation and putting your unique twist on it that only you could have created.…
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An Episode of (writing) Failure
I like to be honest on this blog. No reason to be otherwise. I don’t like to be pretentious, though any foray into self-advertising seems to uncomfortably cling to the cliff leading into the valley of pretension. Here’s the cold hard truth. But sometimes writers fail to achieve their goals. Sometimes others deem their work…
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Recognition is nice, but it’s not why I do it.
Why do writers write? No doubt there are a myriad of reasons. Some noble. Some mundane. Some exploitative. I always wanted to be a writer because I felt that being a writer would be cool. How’s that for pithy? I thought that being a writer would make people go “ooohh” and “ahhhh” which would in…
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When writing, I don’t want to sound smart. I want to sound real.
I was reading some reviews written by some readers of a particular novelist whom I am not familiar with. The readers were noting some of the rather bizarre metaphors that the author was using and said that if you liked the sound of these then you will like this person’s writing. The metaphors themselves seemed…
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A Love Story about a Vietnamese Banyan Tree Twenty Years in the Making
I wrote a guest post for Lovely Reads which just published over the weekend. Here’s the opening and please head on over to Serenity’s site to read the rest about my soon to be released third novel: A Love Story about a Vietnamese Banyan Tree Twenty Years in the Making by Mark W Sasse It’s…
Author Mark W Sasse 