Sensory details bring your story to life. They enhance the character’s depth as well as the setting. It’s these details that helps connect and engage the reader emotionally.
Blog
Should You Write for Your Audience or for Yourself?
While it’s always been said you should write for your audience, is it always true?
Writing Books – Don’t Sacrifice Quality
When self-publishing, it’s important to remember that not only is your reputation as an author on the line, but your book will also reflect upon the self-publishing arena.
Picture Books and Vanity Presses
Self-publishing your picture book? If you’re paying for everything to get the book published, you’re probably working with a vanity press.
Crisp Clean Writing
Helpful flowchart from GrammarCheck that will help you clean up your writing.
Get the Reader Interested ASAP
You may have an out-of-the-ballpark manuscript, but if you don’t get the reader interested within the first sentence or paragraph, you may lose that reader. Those first sentences are so important, Jacob M. Appel (author of over two hundred published short stories) notes, “agents and editors, if not impressed after a sentence or two, will…
Writing and Marketing – Keep Things Manageable
If you’re jumping into the writing arena, there are a few things you should know. The first is to take it step-by-step, and make your steps manageable.
Writing Productivity: The $25,000 Question and Meditation
How do you accomplish all the writing and marketing tasks you must, aside from keeping up with everything else in your life? Ah, the $25,000 question.
Literary Tropes: The Orphan
Contributed by Melinda Brasher A trope is a common plot device, character type, writing element, etc. I believe that many tropes are so common because they’re popular, fun, and good—except that they’ve become so overused that they’ve lost some of their goodness. These should be treated carefully and creatively. Other tropes are simply a result…
Working with New Authors – It’s Not Always Easy
Six Common Writing Mistakes I Explain Over and Over I’ve been working with a client on four picture books over the past few years. She loves the final product and keeps coming back, but she’s still making the same mistakes regarding her feedback on the drafts. With every new section or draft I send her,…