On the recommendation of the wise Karen Strong, I’ve been reading The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. It’s a brilliant little book inspired by Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Bell is honest about the difficulties of writing and publishing, but he’s also full of helpful advice. Here are a couple [...]
I’ve had a few people ask me about beta readers – what they are, what they do, and how I found mine. Someone also asked me if beta readers are like beta fish (aka Siamese fighting fish). As far as I know, my beta readers have yet to fight each other to the death. So [...]
The other night I sat down with a WIP I’ve been working on for over a year. I’d talked to my agent about possible changes I should consider, one of them being the pacing at the beginning. I decided to try writing a new opening scene, one I’d been thinking about for a while. An [...]
At some point, all writers have to do it. There’s a character you love, one that makes you laugh or cry. But alas, your story is getting too crowded and the plot too winding. You, beloved character, must go. Cut. Snip. Goodbye. In the past year I’ve had to cut out three major characters from [...]
Thanks to my agent and my writing group, I now have a bit more direction with my fairy tale revision. Happily, this means I’ve finally started to emerge from my reading slump. I’m currently in the middle of a couple of books, but here are some of my recent reading highlights: Neil Armstrong Is My [...]
