Unsolicited advice from your local opinionated writer.
In honor of the April session of Camp Nanowrimo kicking off tomorrow, today we’re going to talk about a topic very near and dear to my heart: the debate over plotting vs. pantsing. If you’ve participated in Nanowrimo or any of its associated events before, you have almost definitely run across this, and probably gotten… Continue reading Plotting vs. pantsing, and why you should do neither
Matthew: “The thing is, how do I do it without putting people’s noses out of joint?”Violet: “Oh, my dear. Oh, I don’t think there is a way to achieve that. I mean, you must do what needs to be done, of course, but… oh, I think I can safely say a great many noses will… Continue reading How to write with multiple POVs without annoying anyone
Romance is one of the highest-grossing genres of all time, consistently pulling in literal billions of dollars in book sales every year. According to this article, romance has never fallen out of the top 5 bestselling book genres. But romance subplots are also found in virtually every other genre, and for good reason. They draw… Continue reading How to get the most out of your romance subplot
I have a confession to make: plot structure scares the crap out of me. Of all the problems and pitfalls and mistakes a writer can make, the ones that have to do with how your story is structured are by far the hardest to deal with. They’re insidious in that it’s often very difficult to… Continue reading How to fix your plot structure
So, you’re stuck, huh? We’ve all been there. We all know that awful feeling when the ideas slow down and the story that once excited you suddenly feels boring and flat. It’s miserable to realize you’ve come to a place where you no longer want to write your book anymore – or that your book… Continue reading How to fix the worst kind of writer’s block