Tag: characters

Setting–Adding Dimension to Your Fiction

For those who follow this blog regularly, first of all—THANKS! If you are new, Monday is the day that I blog on the craft side of things. I have worked as a freelance writer and editor for going on ten years and all the craft blogs are based off almost a decade of experience. Wednesdays’ …

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What Writers Can Learn from the Masters of Horror

  Here we are in October, my favorite time of year. I happen to like scary movies. Not slasher flicks, but stories that disturb the psyche and really rattle us down on a visceral level. There are different levels of fear—shock, revulsion, terror, etc. As a genre, horror seems to have more subgenres and classifications …

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The Book that Impressed "The Death Star"–The Preacher's Bride

Today is Free-for-All Friday, so it’s my choice for topics. Today I am going to do something a tad unusual. A book review. Now I don’t get asked to do a lot of these. I think it has something to do with my reputation preceding me. When you earn nicknames like “The Shredder” and “The …

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The Doctor is in the House–Novel Diagnostics

Welcome to our third week discussing great novel beginnings. Why are we devoting so much time to the beginning of a novel? Because the first pages are the most critical. Today I am going to let you see the first 20 pages through the eyes of an agent or editor. Novel Diagnostics 101. The doctor is …

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How do you HOOK a Reader?–Understand Great Beginnings Part I

  Anyone in publishing will tell you that one of the most important parts of your novel is the beginning. As an editor I hear, “Oh, but wait until you get to the good part on page 50. This is all the lead up.” Um, no. Doesn’t work that way. You might have a humdinger …

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