(Is my hair straight? Have I got anything in my teeth? Is this thing on? It's on. Crap.) Hello, Pitch Wars crew! All you amazing, lovely people making this contest possible. I'm a little terrified to be here but also ecstatic to try for a slot. A Little ...
This post is inspired by the #PitchWars mentors, who have said time and again that this contest is about community. Finding friends, CPs, commiserators, etc. And it occurred to me, "Why am I not talking DIRECTLY to the other wannabe mentees? We're hopping ...
Last week Writer Unboxed ran a piece called How to Craft a Page-Turning Plot by Cathy Yardley. While I was reading, something clicked in my brain. The article is rather long, but the relevant part is under item 1. Apologies for such a long quote, but ...
When I made the transition from picture books to middle grade I devoured everything in my path. Amelia Bedelia. Mrs. Piggly-Wiggly. The Egypt Game. All of the American Girl series. Most of the Babysitters Club--we're talking twenty books at a time. I was ...
This is one of my favorite tidbits, made ever-cooler by its origin. It's a trick that comes from the writers of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. I first learned of it from the documentary about how an episode gets made, 6 Days to Air: The Making of ...
Last night, on my way to watch the GOP debate (I'm a political junkie), I caught a snippet of Rachel Maddow. She was doing a segment on Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, talking about how culturally significant they've been. She said she believes they made ...
On Writer Unboxed there's a post called Central Casting by David Corbett. I find the premise a little alarming. Quoting Gore Vidal: very writer has a given theater in his head, a repertory company. Shakespeare has fifty characters, I have ten, Tennessee ...
I read a lot of blog posts on writing, thanks to Twitter. A lot of the information is on repeat, but not The Ego Struggle: The Core of the Romance Storyline posted by AndreaJWenger. I think this post has some solid insight. When it comes to romance, it's ...
This is a concept I heard about years ago and have never forgotten. It's kind of fascinating. TV Tropes defines adaptation displacement as: Adaptation displacement is the phenomenon by which a derivative work becomes successful enough to overshadow the ...
I had a wee heart attack earlier this week when my Scrivener project wouldn't open on my laptop. I bounce between a Mac at work and a PC at home, using Dropbox to keep them synched, and up to now I hadn't had much of a problem doing so. I was having trou ...
Final thoughts on Giselle before I switch back to Unchurched. A playlist! https://rd.io/i/Rl4WzlAvlVZs/ Giselle's playlist is dreamy, ethereal. It's a mix of Florence + the Machine, Oh Land, Lana Del Ray, and Lorde with some Mumford & Sons, Norah Jo ...
V and I were having a discussion about what we call 'obsessive love'. It often starts as instalove, but not always. It's what happens when a character just can't stop thinking about--and, more importantly, behaving in relation to--their love interest. Eve ...
A few weeks ago I stumbled across the blog of Derek Murphy, a book cover artist. He was running a special promotion in honor of NaNoWriMo. 30 Covers in one day. Now that's a challenge! He was soliciting novels so I threw my hat into the ring. He made not ...
Janine is a fairly common name. Were there any songs with "Janine" in the lyrics? I wondered. HELLS YEAH. David Bowie lyrics! This has been your 5-minute distraction moment.
I have, technically, finished my first draft. It runs all the way from the beginning to the end, minus some missing scenes. The story still known as Statutory State (because I have yet to come up with something better) stands at about 72k. That leaves pl ...
...well, that's just not a story. Conflict is essential to story. Without it, there's nothing to tell. It's just, "Two ducks existed. They lived in harmony. The end." Yesterday I got a beta reader request that began with, "It is a romance story that has ...
