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The Ngram Viewer is a most useful tool for writers who need to know the popularity of certain phrases used in published books. Here are two ways that I’ve used it. I was doing a beta-read for a writer whose … Continue reading
Yearly Archives: 2014
It’s the second to last day of National Novel Writing Month. I’m working on Book 5: Chrysalis Chronology. It’s the final book in this series. As of yesterday, I’ve got 57705 words written. That’s good. But the bad news is … Continue reading
I’m currently working on the BIG ENDING for my five book series, Chrysalis Chronology. I wrote the first 50,000 words during National Novel Writing Month in 2014. The first 50k came easy, getting them done with more than 10 days … Continue reading
Have you seen Slushpile Hell? I was reading a post by Laura Zats from Red Sofa Literary, and she mentioned SlushPile Hell. I read it for the first time today. It is hilarious; filled with real snippets of Query Letter … Continue reading
I love Apple, Inc. I’ve owned several Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads and iEverything over the years. So it really pains me to realize that the company that I love so much is becoming less lovable. I’m using version 10.9 of … Continue reading
It is a mistake to introduce the reader to many characters at once… apparently. I just read this great rule on the Writers Village blog: “The Golden Rules are: give each character a name that starts with a different letter, … Continue reading
About using the word MOMENT: What is a moment? A short, or undefined amount of time. Often I use this word interchangeably with ‘minutes’ or ‘short length of time.’ But when is it appropriate to use the word ‘moments’? Here … Continue reading
When I first started writing, I used too many attributions because I thought that was what I was supposed to do to keep things clear for the reader. But I’ve learned how to better use attributions from suggestions from my … Continue reading
Besides ProWritingAid.com, my favorite editing website, I have another that I enjoy. HemingwayApp.com is a website that will help writers to write more simply “like Hemingway.” I’m impressed by the simplicity of the site, which is free to use. Just … Continue reading
I just read my first post called How I Became a Novelist. In it I said that I expected that editing my first novel, The Smart Kid, would take about 2-3 months. That was about a year ago and I’m … Continue reading