That Name Rings a Bell
Like a lot of writers, I have a little notebook where I jot down stuff that pops into my head. Sometimes it’s an idea or phrase. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a single word. For instance, the last note I…
Category: Character
Friday Feast: Crime Novels with Female Leads, Things Women in Lit Have Died From, Book Covers, and OMG Shakespeare
Last week, I disagreed with people who said that Pizza Hut’s new pigs in a blanket pizza is the downfall of civilization. Such opinions are subjective. And subjectivity is something we writers know something about. This week, along with other…
10 Ways to Paint a Portrait With Words
I often struggle with describing my characters. Right now, I’m banging my head against a wall trying to describe a teenage boy who has visions as more than a blond hunk. This is all the more frustrating because my mother…
Friday Feast: Breaking Up With Your Book, Writing for 21st Century Teens, Innovative Writers, Book Technology, and Why Some Authors Are Assholes
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. That’s the focus of the links this week, including changes to a common metaphor writers use to describe the writing process, depictions of 21st century teens in young adult books, storytelling methods of innovative authors, and the reading habits…
Friday Feast: Writing Race into Fiction, Characters Who “Just Happen to Be Gay,” “Edgy” Scenes, and Hong Kong’s MFA Crackdown
It’d be so lovely to just write write write and not worry about reader perceptions. You can! That’s the first draft (and the fourth and fifth and so on, if you’re me). And while no one can tell you how…
Great Endings, From The Beginning
I did a dumb thing this week. After swearing up and down for months that we were going to get rid of cable, my husband and I finally pulled the trigger. Because who needs it? Waste of money. Bigger waste of time….