Five Tips on Character Building through Adversity
Writing » Character Development, Craft, Suspense, TensionMarch 11th, 2008
We don’t remember Scarlett O’Hara for her beauty, we remember her because she survived countless marriages, a war, childbirth, poverty, sickness, the end of the world as she knew it, and heartbreak on a monumental scale. And she’s flawed, boy, is she flawed. And a brilliant character. You either love her, or hate her. So how do you make your own Scarlett?
Beta Males Revisted
Writing » Announcements, Character Development, Craft, TipsFebruary 26th, 2008
Just a quick entry to let you know about an interesting discussion that’s happening at Redlines and Deadlines about beta males in fiction/romance.
From the Notebook: All About Lovers
Writing » Fun, Research, Women's FictionFebruary 12th, 2008
In the fall I read many wonderful texts from American Lit (circa 1820 - 1860), especially some great things by feminist writers of the time. To celebrate the coming of Valentine’s Day, here is Fanny Fern’s hilarious satire of lovers and love.
Refresh Your Writing
Writing » Craft, Quotes, Writer's BlockJanuary 29th, 2008
Caricature drawn by Worderella
If you have Writer’s Block, you have sapped all of your creative juices. We writers tend to think we should write all the time without replenishing our imagination, which is as unhealthy as exercising all the time without stopping to replenish fluids. How do you replenish your imagination? Get in contact with people! We attempt the impossible by trying to transcribe the unorganized chaos of life into an organized plot that (dare I say it?) makes sense, is engaging, and means something.
Plot Snafus and Hasty Research
Writing » Plot, Work-in-ProgressJanuary 15th, 2008
Do you know how hard it is to look up 120 year-old weather patterns for a relatively obscure location? I stretched my Google-fu to the limits, searching everything from “UK weather archive” to “Swindon almanac feb 1887.” (My location is actually a small community relatively near Swindon, but that community is so small you might as well say it doesn’t exist on the internet.) After searching for an hour, I found two sources saying there was a December 1886 snowstorm in southern England so fierce that school was canceled, overhead telegraph lines and trees around London were felled, and Kent received 30cm snow (11.8 inches). My community would have experienced that snowstorm, then. But what about February 1887? What happened then?
The new year cometh
General, Writing » Announcements, Fun, Hook, Websites, Work-in-ProgressJanuary 1st, 2008
Happy new year, everyone! Here’s hoping your muse is kind. Mine favored me at the end of my break from school, the procrastinating little wretch that she is, and I’m now 76% complete with the WIP manuscript! I’ve done a lot of work-shopping on the tagline and the hook. Here’s what I came up with for my WIP, Trentwood’s Orphan…
Happy Holidays, Haitus
Writing » AnnouncementsDecember 18th, 2007
I realize I’m sort of copping out for this entry, but I’m taking some much-needed down time until after the new year. I recently converted the blog to Wordpress (finally, I know), so let me know if things still aren’t working correctly.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Books Writers Should Read
Book Reviews, Writing » CraftDecember 11th, 2007
Includes Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, On Writing Romance by Leigh Michaels, and A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation by Noah Lukeman.
Announcement: Feed Update
Writing » AnnouncementsDecember 10th, 2007
This is just to let everyone know that later today (4pm Eastern American time) the feed URL will switch* to http://blog.worderella.com/feed/. Please update your readers accordingly. An actual post will follow the feed transition. Thanks for your patience!
From the Notebook: Dickens’s Dictionary of London 1888
Writing » Historical, Research, VictorianNovember 20th, 2007
On to the subject of this post. This past summer I found treasure: Dickens’s Dictionary of London 1888 is amazing. It’s written by Charles Dickens’s son, Charles Dickens, and covers everything from how much admission will cost (according to where you sit) in every major theatre in London, to how a person should walk down the street if you don’t want to get mugged. Here is an interesting article about fog that had me chuckling…
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