Over the course of several years (and several groups), I’ve experienced the joy that a healthy critique group can bring. It can invigorate your writing practice, inspire you to work harder, provide friends to celebrate (and commiserate) with, and help your writing skills flourish. But not all groups are created equal. Sometimes groups, or individual…
Category: Blog
Plot Puppets, Doppelgängers, Villains and let’s not forget, Revulsion and Disgust
Yeah, my secret’s out of the bag, I can’t really think of anything to blog about this month using my own words, especially with humor. So, I’ve taken parts of blogs and an article from other writers. #DONALD #MAASS (Taken from): http://maassagency.com/ Acting in ways honest and human is what psychologists—and literary critics—call being authentic. Realism…
Six Tips for Working Through Writer’s Guilt
As a new author in the midst of my very first publishing contract, I very much feel like I am flapping in the wind. If you’ve landed on this blog, chances are you know what I’m talking about. While I claim to be a full-time writer, oftentimes I go a week or two without producing…
Nobody Here But Us Chickens
There’s a lot of noise around a chicken coop. Chickens aren’t quiet birds, especially in groups. Sometimes they squabble among themselves. That’s where we get the phrase “pecking order,” because people – like chickens – like to know who’s better than whom. Ideally the “me” wants to be positioned above the “you.” Some might argue…
Writing Great Villains
Let’s talk about villains for a moment, shall we? I LOVE a good villain. Someone who makes your skin crawl. Someone whose presence in the lives of the protagonist and her friends alternately infuriates and scares you. Someone who is a legitimate threat to your protagonist. But how do you create this? How do you…