A small piece from Chapter 12 (conveniently titled "Shit Hits the Fan" at the moment, ha) of the current WIP, the novel I hope to finish during NaNoWriMo... this is an extremely rough draft, and in fact I have hardly any recollection of writing this part at all, since I was in a writing coma at the time. Seriously. Regardless, I hope you enjoy. :) -- JRF *** Vince waited. He waited, hunkered down behind the chicken coop, listening to his own rigidly-controlled breathing, to the pounding ... View Post
The First Rule of Write Club is: You Do Not Use "Thought" Verbs
I don't usually do stuff like this, where I simply link directly to or simply copy and paste articles into a blog post. Usually I add them straight to my Resources page and stop there. Or summarize the main points after they've been strained through my own personal brain filter. But every now and then there comes some advice that strikes me in such a way with its utter brilliance that I just have to share, and share directly. This is one of those instances. The following was emailed to ... View Post
Lessons from Nora Roberts: From Lovers and Labels to Dialogue and Description…
I have a confession: I have never been into romance books.I read one in college at the bequest of my roommate and while I did actually enjoy it, and it was a well-written and engaging (while generally cliché) story, I just never bothered to pick up any more afterward. I don't even remember the name of the book or author now.I am almost exclusively a sci-fi and fantasy girl. Sometimes a literary fiction, sometimes a non-fiction. But mostly just sci-fi and fantasy, whether adult or young ... View Post
11 Most Important Revelations for My Writing Life (and Sanity)
You don't have to tell readers everything. Not only should you avoid info-dumping your poor readers in the beginning of the story, you should avoid info-dumping your readers AT ALL TIMES. Remember - bring out world details through action and dialogue - NOT description and exposition! Sprinkle these tidbits throughout - icing is tasty, true, but good lord, no one wants a fist-sized glob of icing all at once! Even as the author, you don't have to know EVERYTHING about your own story. ... View Post
What I Learned from my Writer's Digest Workshop…
In case some of you weren't aware, I recently enrolled in a Writer's Digest online workshop. It began October 4th and ended December 27th of 2012. It was entitled "12 Weeks to a First Draft", and consisted of 12 assignments, each of 2- 2500 words, which were submitted weekly for individual critique by the instructor, a published career author or a literary agent. In my case the instructor was Stephen Mertz, who has published over 30 books in his ... View Post
Connect