Hi friends! This isn’t Halloween playlist per se, but I’ve gotten a couple of requests for it and I thought the week before Halloween would be the perfect time to post it. It’s a good writing playlist for horror, suspense, and mystery novels and screenplays, and it’s also good, intense music to listen to when writing a book with a
Category: Writing Inspiration.
Hi, friends! At work, we are reading lots of manuscripts after an open submission period. That’s got me thinking about some of the common issues plaguing romance manuscripts. I often get emails asking, “Why is my novel getting rejected?” I want to help, because I’m a writer myself. But sometimes a combination of reasons led to the rejection, and unfortunately,
One of the big questions writers run into is, “What should I name my character?” There are good reasons to take character naming seriously. If an agent or editor is reading a query letter, or if someone in a bookstore is reading the back cover of a book, the characters’ names are one of the first things they learn about
Writers, I know how it is. You need to write a hopeful beginning, an upbeat scene where two friends meet, an adorable date, a triumphant moment, or a happy ending. And you need to get into the right mood. Here’s an uplifting playlist to help you feel happy and put that happiness down on the page. It has an overall
Hey! I am giving this post a content warning for brief references to suicidal ideation, abuse, rape, and child rape and sexual assault. If you have PTSD from these experiences and you’re not having a good day today, please give it a pass. Take care of yourself! One of the big questions that comes up for writers is, “Is it
People have been asking me for this list for such a long time! If you write horror, suspense, mystery, or any kind of fiction with a scary scenes, you need to know how to describe fear. This list can get you started. It’s a lot of phrases describing fear, including physical reactions, physical sensations, facial expressions, and other words you
In my day job in publishing, whenever we’re discussing a new story, one thing we’re often asking is, “What’s the character arc?” (It’s also a reason we pass on a lot of stories: “I don’t understand his arc.”) Without a strong character arc, the reader (or the editor) may be left thinking, “So what? Why should I care?” Simply put, the