Articles
19 Feb 2016
I wrote about making your own character sheets last year right around this time. You can find that article HERE. In honor of the one year anniversary of my article, I thought it would be a great time to have pre-made character sheets available to our readers! YAY! Simply, download the Character Sheets PDF and you’re golden. There is no arguing that using these types...
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Articles / On Dialogue
08 Feb 2016
Recently I had a conversation with an author about the differences between editing dialogue and editing narrative. It occurred to me that this is something I do automatically, but I don’t really know if it’s a hard and fast rule or if editors follow their own rules. Maybe editors don’t make adjustments or aren’t consciously aware they make them. Perhaps I over think things. Anything’s...
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Articles / On Writing
02 Feb 2016
We’ve all read that story. You know the one with independently moving body parts, right? This is called disembodied motion, and it’s an issue that can worm its way into the writing of even the most seasoned of authors. But is all disembodied motion bad? Of course not. As with most things in the English language, there’s an exception to almost every rule. But this...
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Articles / On Writing
18 Jan 2016
Recently I read a sequel with a male lead whose inner struggles nearly cost him everything—his love, his job, his child—and I cried at no less than three points in the story. As he pulled himself back from the edge and turned his life around, I wondered what about this character and his story prompted such a visceral reaction from me. The easy answer is...
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Articles
12 Jan 2016
Writing Conferences 2016 (July – December) Be sure to check back often as I will continue to add to this list when I find new writing conferences. Please note that this is not an all-inclusive list, so if I missed your writing conference, e-mail me the particulars at contact@writedivas.com or leave a comment below and I’ll add it. For events scheduled for the first half...
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Articles
11 Jan 2016
Writing Conferences 2016 (January – June) Be sure to check back often as I will continue to add to this list when I find new writing conferences. Please note that this is not an all-inclusive list, so if I missed your writing conference, e-mail me the particulars at contact@writedivas.com or leave a comment below and I’ll add it. For events scheduled for the second half...
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Articles / On Writing
09 Nov 2015
If you’ve ever heard of deus ex machina and wondered what it is, have I got an article for you. Deus ex machina is Latin and means “God from the machine.” It refers to a plot device that results in a miracle that saves the day when all seems lost and there’s no way out. This is used when the author has written themselves into...
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Articles / On Dialogue
27 Oct 2015
Over the last few days, a picture has shown up in my Facebook timeline over and over again. The caption reads “190 Ways to Say ‘Said.’ ” Grammatical issues aside—the synonyms are actually all present tense, so they’re 190 ways to say say—it was causing a buzz in my timeline. If you’ve seen it, chances are you’ve had one of two reactions: 1) woo hoo,...
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Articles
19 Oct 2015
Yesterday my son reminded me that November is almost here, and I realized it’s almost time for NaNoWrimo aka National Novel Writing Month! I know, some of you are thinking I have such a thoughtful son, right? Hah! He’s more concerned that I don’t forget his school play and less about me being ready for NaNoWriMo. But I digress. November sneaked up on me. I’m still...
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Articles / On Editing
05 Oct 2015
We often talk about what to expect from your editor during the editing process, but how many of us have thought about what the editor should be able to expect from the author at the same time? Sure, I know what some of you may be thinking. Authors pay editors to do the work, so why should they have any expectations at all? The words...
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