The Writing Life
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Can friends be your beta readers?
You know you can’t rely on your mom and bff to be objective beta readers. You know that your neighbor and your co-worker will not give you reliable feedback (or any most of the time). So should you even bother with giving your manuscript to the friends who request it? What purpose does it serve Read more
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Does your story have a point?
When my five year old tells me a story, so every ten minutes, they usually are structured like this: Character introduction- thing happens- thing happens – character change- plot twist – scene change – character name change – new characters introduced – total change in plot/scene/characters/everything – mommy gets a little impatient and stops listening Read more
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My best piece of advice when you are feeling low
This doesn’t only apply to writers, but as a writer it applies. I’m at a stagnant point. Worse actually, because very upsetting news in my personal life has left me really really needing a win with my writing. But it hadn’t arrived yet. Optimism can be hard to come by at time when other things Read more
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The unformed idea
The majority of my work languishes on my hard drive. I’ll never delete it but if I’m honest with myself, I’ll probably never complete it either. A great deal of it is unworthy of completion. Ridiculously contrived premises based on books or movies or just my own young frustrations. My first and only screenplay (written Read more
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84,500 words. 1 Month. Done. Bam
Ten tips that helped me accomplish a full length first draft in a month. Read more
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How to keep writing? Skip the boring parts
I am writing the first draft and I want to keep going with it, if something is boring me enough stop writing than I am going to just move on to build up or an exciting parts. Read more
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Every writer sings a sad sad song
You know what sucks? Rejection. You know what else sucks? Rejection never actually stops sucking. And the third suck? You never stop getting rejected in one way or another. This is true in life, but it is particularly true in artistic endeavors. I got two rejections last week. And they both sucked. They weren’t my Read more
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confessions of a winter hating writer
I’ll be honest here, I barely have the motivation to write this post. Winter just takes it out of me. I get through the holiday rush ready to jump into the new year with plans and projects and then I get cold. I hate being cold. The whole romance of winter, of snuggling into blankets Read more
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Writing Parents in Fiction: What you need to know to resonate with your readers
“There’s no bitch on earth like a mother frightened for her kids.” – Stephen King I recently read a really great novel that had one jarring details I could not get over. A mother of a brand new baby was choosing to move out of a safe environment with her newborn to an extremely dangerous Read more
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Rejections: the other half of pursuing a writing career
Once upon a time I had a great story concept. I was so excited about it I queried before I’d even finished the first draft (cue cringes from all writers reading this). It was, in fact, so good that I got two agent responses. One that said “I’d love to get your query when this Read more
LC W. Allingham 