Reposted: Writing Realistic Romance

I'm taking a brief break this Monday, readers, as last week wiped me out. In addition to this article, please consider the pieces here, here, here, and here as well. Hopefully I'll be back next week with my own Vocational Vivications. Until then, check out this Story Embers article: WRITING REALISTIC ROMANCE December 31, 2018…

Reposted: Cast and Character

Take a look at this excellent piece from Cedar Sanderson over at the Mad Genius' Club, readers! Cast and Character I’d asked in the spiky book club server what topics they’d like to see me touch on in posts, and the first response was to ask about fleshing out supporting characters. Which is a good…

Reposted – Business Musings: Direct: The Year in Review Part 8

Worth considering, readers: Business Musings: Direct: The Year in Review Part 8 On January 6, 2023, Michael W. Lucas made a rather important announcement on his blog. He wrote, in all caps: AMAZON IS NO LONGER MY BIGGEST INCOME SOURCE. It’s not that he added a consulting business to his writing income, or started doing in-person…

Reposted: 2 Skills You Can Learn From Writing in a Different Genre

Take a look at this interesting piece from Story Embers, readers! 2 SKILLS YOU CAN LEARN FROM WRITING IN A DIFFERENT GENRE January 9, 2023 Allison Raymond Everyone has favorite genres that they fill shelf after shelf and hour after hour with. One of mine is contemporary fantasy. Yours might be romance and historical fiction.…

Reposted: Oh John! Oh Marsha! Oh boy, is it a Romance?

Check out this excellent piece from the Mad Genius' Club, readers! Alma T. C. Boykin So, having failed to learn my lesson, today’s topic is romance as a genre. That is, keeping in mind that genre is about marketing. Romance as a term goes back to before romance as a genre, and romances used to…

Reposted: Comparison Isn’t Your Biggest Problem (And Other Ways Envy Makes Writing Miserable)

An interesting piece, readers: COMPARISON ISN’T YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM (AND OTHER WAYS ENVY MAKES WRITING MISERABLE) January 2, 2023 Gabrielle Pollack The most helpful writing advice I learned this year came from the letters of a demon. C. S. Lewis published The Screwtape Letters serially in a newspaper called The Guardian. Eight decades later, I listened to the rumbling voice…

Reposted: Three Storytellers, Two Listeners, One Story

This is a fascinating article and story from Mr. Cheah, readers. Check it out! Three Storytellers, Two Listeners, One Story In his essay ‘The Counterfactual Dialectic’ in Pulp on Pulp, Misha Burnett discusses the use of dialectic to determine what is said to the reader, how it is said, and what the reader will take away…

Reposted – Worldbuilding: Life, Death, and Rituals

This is a good reflection for the New Year, readers. Check it out! Worldbuilding: Life, Death, and Rituals DECEMBER 31, 2022 ~ CROSSOVERCREATIVECHAOS So how do your world’s cultures handle life and death? And when I say rituals, I don’t just mean the kind of formal recognition of christenings and funerals. (Though those are more important to tying…

Reposted: Pregnant protagonists going to war

Ms. Monalisa Foster makes a good point here, readers. The fact that so many writers at present are ignoring it is more than a little bit disturbing: Link to article Pregnant protagonists going to war This morning I stumbled onto this and found myself in dire need to write about it because I too am…

Reposted – Business Musings: How Writers Fail Part 10: Blame

A worthy article to consider, future authors: Business Musings: How Writers Fail Part 10: Blame I spent most of the morning trying to start this post. It’s not like me to have trouble writing, particularly a nonfiction post, but I simply couldn’t do what I had planned. What I had planned was simple: Because of…