Author Life; Make Your Characters Flawsome
As in: flawed, yet awesome. No one wants to read boring perfection.
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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Offers Conflict
It’s the first Wednesday in August, and therefore time for an Insecure Writer’s Support Group post! If you’re looking to join a great online group to participate, collaborate, and support you on your author journey, come on over and join. We’d love to have you. The awesome co-hosts for the August 2 posting of the IWSG are Kate Larkindale, Diane Burton, Janet Alcorn, and Shannon Lawrence! August 2 question: Have you ever written something that afterwards you felt conflicted about? If so, did you let…
Dreaming of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group
It is that time of the month again! Come join us insecure writers as we forge a path towards our dreams. The main point of the group is to connect, reassure, and support your author journey, no matter what it looks like. We meet on the first Wednesday of every month. Come on in! The co-hosts we should offer our thanks to for July are PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre! Go check in on their comment sections and add…
Book Tropes: You Should See The Way They Look at You
Otherwise known as: the fresh scent of pine. Ahhh, this is such a fun niche trope. It generally happens in a ‘hero falls first’ situation, and let’s all admit together that we love us a pining hero. But there is the delicious potential for this uncertainty when any character falls first and is now vulnerable, unsure their love is requited. The best part about all of this troubled water our main character has to paddle through? There’s a happy ending…
My Favorite Characters that Provoke a Little Hatred
Also known as: characters I love which other people love to hate This may be the trickiest prompt I’ve ever done? Obviously this will be a super subjective list and your mileage may vary, standard cautions, etc & etc. Except for Dolores Umbridge, who we can all agree is virulent bullying toad slime wrapped in sickly pink cardigans, there isn’t really a ‘universally hated’ book character that I know of. I’ll do my best with anti-heroes and obnoxious characters who…
Breaking Down a Romance Plot
For this post, let’s break down a well known romance plot to see where the story beats are going. This is an exercise I’d really recommend for authors of any genre. Take your favorite story, or movie, and break it down to see how they made everything work. You’ll be surprised how much it helps you break down your own story! And yes, this is the movie I’m turning into plot points, but it still translates to novel form. Beauty…
Adding AllAuthor to Your Author Toolbox
Yes, there is BookBub.com. It’s right up there with the ginormous Goodreads as a top spot for recommendations and book lists. Pretty much every post or anecdote I’ve heard about BookBub emphasizes how amazing it is when it comes to promotion. I believe those posts, and I’m happy for those authors but . . . BookBub will promote you, and it will work, but it’s also common knowledge that it will cost you roughly an entire month’s worth of income. At least. If you’re…
The Great Blogging Wrap-Up of 2022
Lets get to some numbery-maths for the year. I’m still at the point where I genuinely have a lot of fun breaking my blogging year down in stats. If you’re interested the 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017 breakdowns are linked. Just as a note: I’ve spent zero pennies on marketing of any kind since I started this blog in November 2016. Instead, I’ve focused on blog-hops and building relationships. That means super slow growth and also super low stress levels. (If slow is…
The Insecure Writer’s Group and the Holiday Haze
It’s the first Wednesday in December, so you know what that means! A hastily written post full of little substance and much snark to get you through another month. Our co-hosts this month are Joylene Nowell Butler, Chemist Ken, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Cathrina Constantine! And we absolutely owe them a thank-you visit and comment for adding this to their already full loads in December. The question for December 7th which I will happily answer is: It’s holiday time! Are the holidays a time…
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group and How Writers Relax
Six perfect ways to de-stress during November