Is Your Novel a Spineless Weakling?

Now that NaNoWriMo is behind us, it is time to take a hard look at the 50,000 or so words we wrote. Is it really a story? Or is it 50,000 worth of organic goo that we can maybe perhaps grow into a story? Maybe some of you didn’t participate in National Novel Writing Month, …

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Learning to #EpicFail….with Style

Yes, the picture above is me, right before I learned how to ride a dirt bike this past Thanksgiving weekend (We will use the very loose definition of “learned” for this blog’s purposes). Anyway, that is the cool picture, by the way. Sadly, it was probably the only time I looked cool for the rest …

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Be a Tweep, Not a Tool–How Hashtags Can Win Friends and Influence Enemies

Today we are going to talk a little bit about Twitter. Why? Because I have some really unique methods to help you guys build massive social platforms with less work. We aren’t going to talk about all of those tips today, because your mother told me you needed to work on patience. Ha! That and …

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Antagonists–The Alpha and the Omega of the Story

I’ve run critique groups for almost eight years. I also have edited literally hundreds of manuscripts, and one thing that most new writers do not accurately understand is the antagonist. I have to admit that I didn’t understand the antag the way I needed to until a few years ago, and this pivot-point in my …

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An Attitude of Gratitude

Ah, the holiday season is upon us. Next week is Thanksgiving. For the rest of you who have also been doing NaNoWriMo, there is more to this month than hitting the 50,000 mark. GASP! I know. I just found out myself. I had hoped to be writing a blog about what it felt like to …

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