 Faith Hunter
read all posts by Faith HunterYes it’s a weird title, and a weird post, but please bear with me. This post may jerk right, then swerve left like a creeking run in winter, but it goes somewhere that I think is important, to a place that I forgot about. This post (and the place I have ended up) is all due to comments by y’all, that were cemented by Young Writer’s comment from my post last week. You worked as Beta Readers.
>>Young Writer said: Thank you! I needed my character to be teased over a boy– to show they were very close friends– and he ended up being a main character. Simon (his name) took my novel in a completely different direction. He brought my character down, but she always got back up. He showed how strong my MC was. >>
That gave me an Ah-HAH moment. Thanks YW!
Onward to the post. [...]
Continue reading Writing Devices : If the Glove Doesn’t Fit, Introduce a Rooster. And Raison d’etre
Faith Hunter
read all posts by Faith HunterTongue planted firmly in cheek. Weeeelll. Sorta.
On Monday, David had a post that impacted my own writing almost instantly. His post on A Few Common Writing Problems hit me so hard that I haven’t been able put it aside, silence it, or kill it outright. And since David’s post also met and merged with something Kim Harrison wrote about on her drama box a week or so ago—With Bravery Come the Spoils of War: I figured that it must be my muse telling me to deal with it in today’s post.
My muse will be obeyed. He is not someone to be trifled with. If I’m not writing, he gets out his bullwhip and starts snapping it at me. If I am writing, but am also ignoring him, he gets testy or starts drinking or, worse, threatens to pole dance, which cannot be a happy sight. I fear it [...]
Continue reading Writing Discipline. Or Not.
 Stuart Jaffe
read all posts by Stuart JaffeRecently, I had a few hours to kill and a bookstore nearby — a heavenly match. For awhile, I drifted along the racks, reading titles, looking at covers, enjoying the sensual aroma of so many books packed together. After some time, however, I started to look at it all with a critical eye, not just as a consumer but with the eye of somebody in the business of writing.
It’s a common bit of advice to check out what’s selling at a bookstore within your genre and sub-genre, to know what’s being done so that you will understand where your book fits into the larger picture. Good for general knowledge and for query letters. But there’s an even larger picture which we don’t often talk about — the world beyond your little niche.
[...]
Continue reading Publishing — Learning at the Bookstore
Faith Hunter
read all posts by Faith HunterThe life of a writer is full of both joy and disappointment. 1. The joy of getting that first book contract. 2. The disappointment of having a loved editor laid off from the publisher. 3. The joy of getting a hard-soft deal. 4. The disappointment of finding that the publisher has lost confidence in that book even before it hits the stands. 5. The joy of that first check. 4. The disappointment of seeing a cover which has nothing at all to with the book. And no one cares.
Today I have a *joy of* moment. We have talked a lot about covers here at MW, and have said a lot about how covers make us feel. Let’s face it, how they make is feel is the all important purpose of a cover. They need to make us:
1. Want to open the book 2. Want to read the first page 3. Want to [...]
Continue reading COVERS: Joy-Moment. And Crutch
Faith Hunter
read all posts by Faith HunterIt’s one of those days when RL (real life) is getting in the way ofany kind of writing, even this blog. Between other stuff (which could go in caps, like OTHER STUFF) a co-worker fell at work and I have been pulling the graveyard shift. Ugh-ick. So I thought it might be smart to build on that, and talk about the writing life, when RL gets in the way.
Some of the best advice on writing (to me, anyway, but you can put yours in the comments) is :
1.) Read a lot. 2.) Write every day. Neither of which I do.
Yep, I’m a baaaad writer. But I have another life. (Two of them. Maybe three. And looking for fourth. Call me schizoid. I won’t deny it.) I do read, but it isn’t quite what the writing-rule requires. The writing-rule is suggesting that I read a lot of books [...]
Continue reading Get Out of the Way!
Faith Hunter
read all posts by Faith HunterToday we welcome out special guest, Kim Harrison. Kim has agreed to post here a few times a year, whenever she has something interesting to offer about the business. Welcome Kim!
The battle of the e-books has spilled onto my desk.
I’m great at staying out of trouble most times. You may have noticed that I’ve been very tight lipped lately about the recent drama concerning e-books, saying only that because of their increased popularity, many publishers have begun giving e-books their own release date, aligning them more closely to mass markets than hard covers, (since the price of many e-books are more inline with that format)
Things have been shifting radically in the last month, with shoving contests between retailers and publishers seeming to hurt only the authors and readers. (For a more business slant, check out Richard Curtis’s blog. It’s been hopping with industry news.)
The drama hit kind [...]
Continue reading The Battle of the E-Books — Kim Harrison
Faith Hunter
read all posts by Faith HunterOne quick note, Y’all. On Tuesday the 16th of February, we’ll have a guest blogger, Kim Harrison. Hope you’ll join us that day for a special post!
In the life of a writer, little is more boring or more necessary than the first rewrites. When I was writing mystery/thrillers, the first rewrite was between pages 100 and 150. It was there that the strands of the mystery had begun to become clear, when suspects found a face, and when the tension had started to loosen, not tighten. If I were a screenwriter, I suppose it might be the second scene of Act Two. For me it was the boring section of writing a book, but it also was the setup of the final action scene, (still so far away.) Everything that had happened to date had to fit together like the knots in a knitted scarf.
Yeah, that’s a girly [...]
Continue reading My MO
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How To Write Magical Words
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