In my office, I have a framed quote that constantly reminds me life is not the absence of challenges, disappointments and unexpected twists. Those who succeed don’t avoid those storms, but rather learn to find the good in them. They learn to dance in the rain. As a writer, you’ll be faced with all sorts of storms. What you do with those storms will determine your future more than the storms themselves. So how do you learn to dance? Let’s take a look. Dancing in the Rain in a choice. You have little or no control over most of the storms in life. But you do have complete control over how you react to them. It’s true. I’m writing this on the airplane while traveling to the […]
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Act 2: Deepening the Romance Thread
Yesterday, we reviewed the Whys of falling in love, and how we might build that into our romance. Just to add a shameless plug here – if you want to know how to build a full-fledged romance, try Kiss and Tell, my brand new workbook on writing a romance! (Check it out here: http://stores.mybooktherapy.com) So, bringing this back to the story: How do the hero and heroine complete each other? For Kenzie, it’s that she remembers who she is. For Luke, it’s the sense that he doesn’t have to be alone. I’ll be building on that in the next scene. Once I figure out the romance element I’m building, I’ll also take a look at the kind of scene I’m building. In this case, it’s a combo scene […]
Read the RestIgnoring My Internal Editor
Fun. That’s what I told everyone: The 2010 MBT WriMo Celebration was going to be fun! And then I set my alarm for November 1, 2010. Bounded out of bed that morning before anyone else in the house was awake. Ran downstairs, ignoring the dogs whining for breakfast. Settled in front of my computer, ready to go. Because I had 50k words to write in 30 days. This was gonna be fun.And then the screaming started.Not me—Ed, as in my Internal Editor, started screaming.For every word I typed, he screamed a barrage of insults. “That’s an awful opening line!”“You need a bigger DELETE button!”“You should’ve stayed in bed! The dogs could write better than this!”Oh, yeah. This was some kind of fun.Writing that morning was a-g-o-n-y. There was only one […]
Read the RestBefore You Submit a Proposal
You can’t help it. It’s time. Really time. You’ve been writing and rewriting this book for eons. Or at least it feels like eons. You want to submit it, get going on your stellar writing career. Time’s a wastin’! Maybe you haven’t been working on it for eons, but you went to a conference and you heard an editor say she was really looking for the next great romance author to groom and you have just the story. Or finally, one of the BIG PUBLISHERS is actively seeking speculative fiction and your space navy story is ready for the picking. Perhaps your story has been through a critique or edit of some kind. A reader (mom, dad, sister, best friend, hubby, wifey) LOVED it. They want more! […]
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