Characters

A Primer on Regency Era Women’s Fashion

A Primer on Regency Era Women’s Fashion

This week and next, we’re going to take a look at how people dressed in the Regency Era. This week we’re going to focus on Regency Era Women’s Fashion and all the different pieces of apparel they were changing in and out of multiple times per day. This list isn’t exhaustive by any means and…

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Research

This week my accountability group is blogging about how we go about doing research for our books. Last week’s post on developing characters is also part of our How I Write series. Market Research: I read voraciously in my chosen genre of Regency set Historical Romances. I read other genres too, but these are my…

Building Character

This week my accountability group is blogging about how we flesh out/develop a fiction character for our stories. Last week’s post on our bookshelves and influential authors is also part of our How I Write series. In order to answer the question about HOW, I think I need to share what character depth & complexity…

#WritersDuel

My friend Cassandra Curtis is hosting #WritersDuel – But because Twitter limits to 140 characters, the challenges are posted to twitter, but answered on FB or blogs, and shared through links on Twitter or other social media. You can find the #WritersDuel Rules on Cass’ site. I received the following Duel Challenge: “Your heroine wakes…

Coming Up With Ideas

This week my accountability group is blogging about where we got the idea for our current WIP as a follow up to last week’s more general discussion of Inspiration. Coming up with ideas is the easy part. Executing them is the part that gives me trouble. Generating ideas is something we can train ourselves to…

Excerpt Monday, Take 2!

Bria and Mel are at it again! I’m late to the party, but wanted to play along again. I’ll be back in a bit with more links to follow I think this excerpt started life as a response to a challenge on Divas and never made it anywhere because I’d cheated in the challenge and…

Conflict Revisited

Scriptwriters and directors have it easy compared to novelists. They ask for a charged look to pass between the characters and it happens (Ok, it may need a couple of takes to get the right one!). Audiences must infer from outward reactions between characters to know what they think and feel. We imagine, with a…

Irrevocable Commitment

In Chapter 8 of Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, Donald Maass spends a lot of time on the idea of why we do what we do. Not just the big things, but the little ones too. He says it’s because we care. Without feeling like what we do matters, there’s no sense in getting out…

Personal Stakes

Gambling was a part of life in the Regency Era. Card games abounded: faro, whist, hazard. Fortunes were won and lost on a nightly basis in the clubs, gaming hells, and card rooms of London. But I don’t want to talk about those kinds of stakes today. Moving forward again in Writing the Breakout Novel…

Reversing Motives

And with this post, I’m diving back into Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass. I didn’t completely abandon it over the last week, but I haven’t had big chunks of time to work without distractions, so this exercise has taken longer than usual. I think the title of this exercise is a little…