Tools of the Trade
There seems to be an uproar in social media spheres at the moment – over grammar, of all things. Actor John Cusack has been villified for making typos while Tweeting to his fans via his iPhone. Sounds like he has chubby finger syndrome. For writers, though, language and how it is used is the core […]
House Works
I’ve been fascinated by the character Gregory House (from the TV show House, M.D.) for a while now. Can he be called an “anti-hero”? Perhaps the term should be “anti-protagonist”? Or perhaps it is heroic, story-wise, to wrap one’s brain through medical mysteries and save the patient in the nick of time, even if it […]
Show Me Who You Are
***The following contains spoilers for the Australian television movie Little Oberon.*** Here is an example from a movie (Little Oberon) of showing the audience key elements of the story instead of telling them. (“Show, don’t tell. Show, don’t tell”: something my writing teachers always drummed into my head.) It’s much easier to show in a […]
Romance for the Aged
I can handle small doses of horror in book form (not movies), but what I really can’t stomach is romance. Take that as a disclaimer. I avoid romance and romance blend genres, including Fantasy-Romance, as much as possible, so I haven’t read the books that contain the concept that I feel like griping about today. […]
Revise Your Novel in One Week
There is now a “lite” version of the “How to Revise Your Novel” Workshop available for only $5. This is a complete revision programme; not a teaser. It was created by an author who was offered an opportunity to submit her novel to fit an unexpected open slot in a publisher’s line-up… with the catch […]
Exposition Exposed
I’ve just finished reading the first book in Robin Hobb’s latest addition to her Elderling Realm universe: Dragon Keeper*. Hobb uses a lot of exposition in this book (which possibly explains the complaints by readers reviewing on Amazon that this book is “slow moving”). The pace didn’t bother me, though, and I was quite interested […]
More on Point of View
I’m still reading Inkspell* (don’t laugh! I’m also reading Life of Pi* and Playful Parenting* and I only get a few minutes a day to gulp down a page or so), but I’m finding this a very interesting example of a multiple viewpoint book. It is addressing a lot of issues I was exploring in […]
Easy Does It
I’ve set myself a ridiculously easy daily writing goal. I’m a little ashamed to admit what it is: 100 words. Yes, I know. I’m a breastfeeding mum; give me a break. But it’s working. I can do 100 words even on a really busy day. I can squeeze it in somehow. And I’ve thrashed that […]
Standing Alone
Since I made the decision to turn my trilogy into a stand alone novel I’ve been trying to choose between the options of interweaving the three related stories or running them separately as Parts 1, 2, and 3. My heart likes the former. It will make for a fuller, rounder story, and it will take […]
In Mind
So this is what I have in mind for HearWriteNow: I’ve ditched the idea of the email newsletter / ezine that was “Lateral Ezine” and instead I want to turn HearWriteNow itself into an online writers’ magazine. Lateral was really just an email to let people know that a new article was up; I wanted […]