I’ve noticed an excessive amount of “thats” in the stories I’ve read. Most of the time, “that” doesn’t need to be there. Take this sentence: She felt that she was in danger Reads smoother as: She felt she was in danger. Think of reading a novel as driving on a winding road. There are many…
I always dreamed of taking those beautiful landscape shots. New York doesn’t offer many chances for those kinds of photos unless I go upstate. I like cityscapes but I prefer shots with more green in them. Although I love landscape photography, I have some trouble composing them. If you’re taking a picture of an entire…
There’s a lot to be said about a writer’s imagination but sometimes I have trouble seeing the things I put in my story. Nothing beats personal experience but we can’t literally go outside turn left and visit our fantasy world or live in a Gothic castle for the several months it takes to write our…
I just finished reading The Guardian by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It was an interesting story. I might have to check out her other books. What bothered me about the story, though, were the pop culture references. I don’t like them in my fiction, especially not my fantasy. They pull me out of the story. They date the book….
My mind can sometimes be my enemy. I’m looking at this blank blog post and nothing is coming to mind. This is odd. I always have a story to tell. I’m building scenes while trying to sleep or concentrate on something other than my stories. I grew up but my imagination didn’t. Something as simple as a dog dish…
On an unrelated note, I took my last class yesterday. I’m not officially done with school until I get my grades but, I know I’ll pass my classes so, I’m done. (Pause while I hyperventilate, weep, and do back flips.) Now, back to business. I’ve been editing my novel. This is the first time I’ve…
I know naming comes with the job description but man, is it difficult. It’s harder than writing the story and editing it. When creating a world, you sometimes need a new name for everything- cities, villages, races, stores, houses, rooms, professions- everything. On top of that, you can’t name your characters something normal without a…
I’m terrified of losing a copy of any one of my stories so, along with saving them on my computer, an external hard drive and a SD card, I save them on a flash drive and carry that around with me. I try not the use the flash drive often but I’d saved a class…
Once again, I’ve got another novel in my head- that make’s six now: 1 series (3 novels), half a series (2 novels) and the first of another series. Usually, when I finish a novel or short story I wonder, just for fun, how it would go if I continued it. Most of the time, nothing…
