Craft

So… You Wanna Be A Writer?

This week’s topic for my accountability group in our How I Write Series is “What do you wish you had known before you had even started to write? What would you have told your past self? Would you have discouraged yourself or encouraged? Would you have gone a different route?” So… this post isn’t so…

Plot Bunnies: Proper Care and Feeding

Before we get to plot bunnies, let’s talk about creative insecurities for a minute. Many people worry to the point of paranoia about having their ideas stolen. This notion isn’t specific to any one industry either. Movies, music, writing, game design, car makers, electronics, everyone’s got something they’re afraid someone is going to overhear and…

Writing Advice: The Best & Worst I’ve Seen

“Writing Advice: What are the top 5 best and worst things you’ve been told so far?” is this week’s topic in my accountability group’s HOW I WRITE series. Last week, we posted our look back at our 2011 goals and how we’re moving forward in 2012. I took this week’s topic in a similar vein….

My Top 9 Books for 2011

Last week, our How I Write series laid out our writer’s toolkit and resources. This week we were asked, “Which books that you’ve read this year would you put into a time capsule for 2011?” It’s funny how you can almost tell who picked the questions each week by how whimsical or practical they are….

Plotting via Spreadsheets – Don’t Be Trapped in the Box

Last week, we talked about How We’d Spend A Day With One of Our Characters, but this week’s entry in our How I Write series, takes a closer look at our planning process. So, since we’re all writers, we’re focusing on plotting, which inevitably leads to the question: Plotter vs Pantser or some weird mix?…

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…

A Regency lady, riding side-saddle or aside.
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Regency Era Horse Sense

Writing and Horses In a previous Regency Resource post, I briefly introduced different modes of transportation in the Regency Era. One mode that crossed class boundaries was the horse. From pleasure and sport riding among the nobility to the working horses pulling carts and wagons for the working class, it’s easy for modern authors to…

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Cyclic in Nature

In the past three years (Gosh, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long!), I’ve come to realize that my writing process is quite cyclic in nature. This isn’t so much tied to the time of year when I may or may not have more free time, but feels more like one of those buckets…

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A Writer’s Style & Voice

This is one of those topics where I can’t claim any expertise. In fact, I’m not sure very many people could. A writer’s style and voice are very subjective things. What appeals to one person may turn another completely off reading past the first page. Then, you also can’t confuse the author’s voice with the…

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Structure

Just like we need a bit of structure in our lives in order to thrive and stretch our selves to reach our goals, our writing needs a bit of structure to it. This helps keep the story coherent and cohesive and helps it resonate with the reader. I’m sure there are experimental constructions out there…