Category: Writing tips

Quickie writing tips

Hiya, peeps–

Something cool that you still have a little time to follow is the Thursday Tweet-o-rama session with Sara Megibow, an agent with Nelson Literary Agency out of Denver (yay!). She does this thing on Twitter called 10 Queries in 10 Tweets. She Tweets 10 times about projects from the slushpile, letting followers know if it’s a yes or a no. She states the genre of the project, and a very brief reason as to why she’s rejecting it or accepting it. No identities are revealed in the making of these Tweets. Sara’s Twitter handle is @SaraMegibow and the hashtag is #10queriesin10tweets. Sadly, I think she’s discontinuing it at the end of the December, but you can check out the hashtag regardless and see what it was about. And follow her anyway on Twitter. She’s got lots of cool tips and info.

Otherwise, you might consider signing up for the Nelson Lit Agency newsletter. It’s monthly, and provides info about what projects they’ve acquired and why, and updates you on other projects they successfully placed at publishing houses. They’ll also tell you about some of the super-cool webinars they do for writers.

AND. Here are some examples of successful query letters to agents. I think you can use these as examples, too, of successful queries to publishing houses that don’t require agents. Seeing examples of what works, I think, can be pretty helpful to get your groove for your own queries. Seriously. Go check those out. I guarantee you’ll be wanting to read the full project after reading the query. 😉

Just some tips from the ether from me to you. Happy Saturday, and happy writing!

by Categories: Inspiration, Publishing bizness, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , , 1 Comment

If at first you don’t secede: world-building

Hi, peeps–

A friend of mine sent me a link recently from a…ah…shall we say, more “conservative” website in which there was talk about certain southern states seceding from the U.S. I won’t mention the site or the states. Suffice it to say that if you play on TEH GOOGLE for any amount of time with the word “secession,” you’ll no doubt run across many sites whose visitors spend lots of time grumbling about such.

I don’t want to talk about the historical or political origins of such an argument, nor do I want to get into the larger anti-everything that isn’t conservative context in which such an argument percolates. Instead, let’s look at it through sort of a post-apocalyptic lens. Like, say, The Walking Dead. Also, when I bump into talk of secession, I invariably think of world-building in, say speculative fiction.


source

WTF do I mean? Read on…

Continue reading →

by Categories: Inspiration, Spec fic, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , 6 Comments

Helpful writing links plus some other stuff

Hey, kids–

Tomorrow, join me and author Michael Chavez over at Women and Words. We’ll be chatting about his work and he’ll also be giving away a copy of his first novel, Creed. Come on by and hang out with us!

And other stuff I’ve found that I’m going to pass on to you:

Writing sidekicks and henchmen, by author Sophie Masson. I love to write strong secondary characters, so I dug this post. Read the comments, too, because there are other examples and tips in there.

Let’s talk (ha ha) about dialogue! Yet another useful post from author Catherine McKenzie: 10 tips for writing impactful dialogue.

Here’s one of my earlier posts on dialogue, for more tips. I think dialogue is super hard to do well, so any time I see a blog about tips for writing it, I’m all over it.

Are you guys familiar with literary agent Sara Megibow? She’s with Nelson Literary in Denver, and does a greatly informative and fun Twitter feed (@SaraMegibow). Every Thursday ’til the end of the year, she does this thing on Thursdays on Twitter at the hashtag #10queriesin10tweets. Check it out. And follow her on Twitter, because she has great tips for approaching literary agents, writing query letters, and writing. Plus, she and the crew over at Nelson Literary are always doing helpful webinars. I highly recommend you get on their newsletter list.

Oh, and I just finished reading Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr, a collection of his first three Bernie Gunther detective novels. I’ll be doing a write-up on it at Goodreads soon, but in the meantime, check it out. This is hard-boiled noir, and it takes place in Nazi-era Berlin. Go have a looksee. If you’ve read it, I’d be interested to get your thoughts on it.

All rightie! Happy reading, happy writing!

by Categories: Announcements, Cool blogs, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , , ,

What I learned about writing from zombie plots

Hi, kids–

So I’ve been following the series Walking Dead, as some of you know. It’s a zombie apocalypse series, and what I find interesting about it is how interpersonal human drama plays out against a backdrop like this.

In that regard, Walking Dead is what I’d call a mixture of Lord of the Flies, The Road Warrior, and Night of the Living Dead. Because ultimately, what apocalyptic and dystopic scenarios come down to is the people dealing with them, and the power struggles within the groups of survivors.

There’s no story in a zombie apocalypse if there aren’t non-zombies therein having to cope with it. And there’s no story in a dystopic society in which a tyrant rules all unless there’s a segment of the population battling that or thinking about battling it. Stories are all about conflict, whether internal or external.

So let’s go have a think about that, shall we? 😀

Continue reading →

by Categories: Writing, Writing tips, ZombiesTags: , , 5 Comments

How-to writing books

Hi, kids–

One of the ironies of writing is that we tend to read other writers’ guides on how to write. And we should, because there are some really good writing guides out there. It’s important to have guides on hand to grammar and punctuation, guides that help us figure out infrastructure, and tips that we can implement in our own writing to take our games to the next level. And then there are inspirational writing guides that can make you feel warm and fuzzy after you’ve had writing issues.

So here are a few of my suggestions.

For mystery writers, check out Chris Roerden‘s Don’t Murder Your Mystery (that link will also show you another of her great guides, Don’t Sabotage Your Submission). The tips in that book you can use for other genres, as well.

Looking to write more descriptively? Try Rebecca McClanahan‘s Word Painting. It includes instruction and exercises, as well as examples from the masters, classic and contemporary.

Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s already on its 10th anniversary. Part memoir, part guide, this handy toolkit will address just about everything you need in your bag o’ writing tricks. The fundamentals, my friends. Plus, it’s a warm, intimate look at King’s early life and how he himself approaches writing. But don’t just listen to me. Go check out the link.

Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones (originally published in 1986, but it was updated in 2005). This is sort of a “Zen and the art of liberating your inner writer” kinda book. Might not be everyone’s style, but it’s a different approach and delves into creativity and its potential spiritual elements.

Strunk and White, The Elements of Style. It does not matter that this book first started life as an in-house writing guide for college students in 1918 by Cornell’s William Strunk. Nor does it matter that this pup got new life in 1959 when E.B. White revised Strunk’s 1935 edition. It’s freakin’ timeless, this book, and addresses things like the most misspelled words, common word usage errors, and proper punctuation. The book does have its critics, but it’s a nice brick to have in your writing framework.

Also get on over to Keith Cronin‘s recent blog over at Writer Unboxed to see his list of suggestions for writing guides. We overlap in a couple of places, but that’s okay. I like his list and I’m going to take his suggestions on a couple of things.

And here’s a list by Jon Winokur over at HuffPo (from 2010, but that’s quite okay).

Hopefully, that’ll get you started. Happy reading, happy writing!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to read, Inspiration, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , , 1 Comment

Writing a mystery series: tips and timing

Hey, kids–

Hope this weekend treats you well. I’ve been thinking about series. That is, the series of books that authors write — usually in genre fiction like mystery or speculative fiction. In addition to my standalone short stories and novella-length stories, I write two series. One mystery, one sci fi.

Like many writers (most, probably), I have a day job, which means I have to really budget my time and make schedules so that I get writing time in as often as I can. I generally try to write every day, but some days, I’m really tired so I don’t. I don’t beat myself up about that, because trying to write when I’m tired means I’ll be doing lots of re-writing later, and if I’m just too tired, I can’t be present for the writing session.

Point being, because I have a day job and can’t devote 8 hours a day to writing, that means it’s hard to do that book-a-year thing that many series authors do. I also had a bunch of other issues crop up over the past year that required my full attention, so I had to back-burner (for a bit) both my series. I’m finishing up the third in the sci fi, and I’m over halfway through the fourth in my mystery series. So I’m playing catch-up. But that’s not really what was on my mind.

I recently saw the movie Looper (which is completely awesome though if you’re fragile in certain ways, it is very violent and there’s lots of cursing), and because there’s time travel involved, it got me thinking about that and other time conundrums. And that, in turn, got me thinking about series.


Source: Nova (re-sized here)

WTF, you say? Read on!

Continue reading →

by Categories: Writing, Writing tipsTags: , , 3 Comments

More things you shouldn’t do as an author

Hi, kids–quickie here.

Caught this article on HuffPo a couple days ago: “11 Things Not to Do Before Your Book Launch,” by M.J. Rose.

Most of these tips are pragmatic, like the first 2:

1. Don’t assume everyone will wake up the day your book comes out and rush out to buy it . (No one can buy a book they have never heard of.)

2. Don’t spend more than 10% of your marketing/pr budget on a trailer. Trailers have to be marketed too. So far too many authors wind up marketing their trailers instead of their books.

A couple deal with making sure you don’t trip over your ego, like number 5:

5. Don’t be in awe of your own talent, book, brilliance, success or transcendental prose. It’s better to have someone other than you, the author, praise the book.

I’d say those tips can apply to after the launch, as well, and should be things you’re thinking about anyway, in conjunction with every book you write and your overall writing arc. That is, where you want to go with your projects, both long-term and short-term goals.

And some tips about etiquette for authors I posted a while back, just as a refresher. Go here and here, if you wanna see.

Happy reading, happy writing!

by Categories: Things you shouldn't do, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , 4 Comments

More on the Writers’ Police Academy

Hey, kids!

Okay, so I’m able to get caught up with things and tell you about my weekend at the Writers’ Police Academy in North Carolina. I mentioned it a bit last week here. I’m a member of Sisters in Crime, which is so freaking awesome in so many ways, not least of which is helping subsidize the WPA registration fee for its members. BIG FREAKING SHOUT-OUT TO SinC! And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all the staff at the Guilford, NC sheriff’s department, who VOLUNTEERED all their time to work with us over the weekend, and to the instructors at Guilford Technical Community College, who also VOLUNTEERED their time to run the sessions and work with a bunch of writers who literally bombarded them with questions. THANKS!

So I’m gonna give you my day-to-day activities. So for those of you who write thrillers and/or mysteries, an event like this might be well worth your while.

Let’s go!

Continue reading →

by Categories: Conferences, Inspiration, Writing, Writing tips

Writers’ Police Academy

Hey, kids!

Okay, so I had the super-cool chance to attend the Writers’ Police Academy this year.


source

I’ve been wanting to go, and this year I had the chance. So I did. I’ll talk more about it in a later blog, as I’m still trying to catch up after my almost 4 days of constant go go go. But I do want to make a few things clear in this blog. You’ll see those below.

Something that helped me immensely: As a member of the organization Sisters in Crime, my registration cost was $100. That was a giant bowl of awesome. Obviously, like other workshops, you have to arrange your own transportation and lodging (the conference hotel had a conference rate) and a few meals, but for things like this, it’s totally worth it, especially since workshop/conference registration can sometimes be super expensive for many of us, like $300-$500 in some cases. Nevertheless, try to save up so you can go. And professional organizations can help cut that cost a bit.

So let me stress the following points about events like this:

1. It’s important to continue to expand your horizons as a writer, and to continue to develop your skill set.

2. Workshops/conferences give you a chance to network. You never know who you’ll meet or what new avenues you’ll be able to explore.

3. Get the most out of your conference/workshop experience. Go to panels that not only interest you, but that have something to do with projects you’re working on. The people leading the panel and the audience are all not only interested in the topic, but working on projects that deal with it, too. Networking opp!

4. Talk to the instructors/people leading the panels. They can provide more information, direct you to even more resources, and become a potential contact.

And do yourself this favor:
5. Join professional organizations that cater to the type/genres of writing you do. Membership gives you perks, including deals on conference/workshop registration. They’re also great networking opportunities. And I recommend you share the love back, and give of your time and energy to the organizations as you can. They’re always looking for volunteers to help with projects. I cannot stress this enough. Join professional organizations. Keep current on your dues, utilize the resources, and make yourself known.

Next time, I’ll give you more of my experience at WPA. In the meantime, check out this schedule. That’s what I did from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. For those of you who write thrillers and/or mysteries, Writers’ Police Academy is something you really need to think about doing. I’ll tell you more next time.

Happy Tuesday!

by Categories: Coolness, Events, Inspiration, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , , , 1 Comment

So you want to be a writer. Bless your heart.

Hi, folks–

I’ll be on the road in the next few days, so I won’t be able to check in as often as I’d like. But DON’T WORRY! I’ll be back, and probably with some tales to tell.

Anyway, I follow Broadside (because it’s an awesome blog. Hello.) and today, Caitlin Kelly (the woman who does Broadside) had a super good post about what it takes to be a writer. READ IT. Not that I’m pushing you or anything.

She didn’t use the term “stubborn,” but I sure will (Caitlin used “persistence”). Because that’s important. You must be stubborn and stick to it, if it’s what you want to do. And you must continue to do it, in the face of what some days feels like you’re wearing a pair of concrete cowboy boots in a shit tornado. In spite of these things, you must persevere, if this is what you want to do.

You will be rejected (and some of those will hurt). You will be dissed on the interwebs (and you must not respond). You will submit your work a gajillion times and only one of those times may garner you a notice. But it may not land you a contract. You must, as Caitlin points out, have a hide the thickness of a fossilized dinosaur’s (okay, she’s more eloquent) but the sensitive heart of a Bambi-eyed puppy. You must suck it up and smile, even when you’re in the middle of that poo typhoon, and exhibit graciousness and humility because people remember what you say and do. Readers like to know that you’re not some cranky-ass sodden heap of negativity spewing thunderbolts of judgment at everybody who wanders across your time/space continuum. And if you are, readers remember. Hell, everybody remembers. Why bring that on yourself?

And, a couple of my favorites from Caitlin: be curious, and be generous. I’m intensely curious about everything and everyone. How could you not be? The world is an endlessly fascinating place and we are a totally mondo-bizarro species doing all kinds of wild stuff. I also like giving of my time and energy to others, because you never know who you’ll meet. Plus, it’s just good ju-ju to share the love.

Caitlin also supplies some links to other blogs about what it takes to be a writer. Check those out. And here are a couple I liked.

(the always irreverent and happy sailor-mouthed) Chuck Wendig’s 25 things he wants to say to aspiring writers

And another Chuck post about things writers lie about to themselves

And here’s Chuck’s secret to writing:

source (re-sized here, and he did register it with a Creative Commons license, so share away!)

by Categories: Cool blogs, Inspiration, Things that make you think, Writing, Writing tipsTags: , , , , 2 Comments