Articles / On Writing
19 May 2014
Divas On Writing: Where The Heck Are We? Recently I read a book for my personal book blog The Flirty Reader that left me scratching my head, and it wasn’t because of a confusing plotline or lack of development. It was the lack of proper setting. In this book the author used many words with British spelling, which would indicate to me that the book...
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Articles / On Editing
13 May 2014
When to Hire an Editor Now that you have your manuscript written, you’ve revised it and handed it out to people who gave you their honest opinion, and then revised and polished it some more… it’s time for the final stages so you can publish your creation for everyone to read. You can see the end in sight, the light at the end of the...
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Articles / On Writing
12 May 2014
Indirect and Direct Action in Your Writing Something I’ve noticed more and more as I read—and edit—is the use of what I’ll call indirect action, for lack of a formal title. What I mean is the kind of writing where the sentence is formatted so that the action lies at the feet of the observer instead of the actor. A few examples of what...
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Articles / On Writing
07 May 2014
Featured Article: The Divas’ Favorite Books on Writing Today, I asked my sister-Divas to share with us their favorite books on writing. There are certain books on our shelves that collect dust and then there are those shining stars that we return to again and again. And we thought if they were helpful to us, maybe they would be helpful for you as well....
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Articles / On Writing
06 May 2014
You have done it, you wrote a book. Yay! The tough part is over. Well, not really. You have revising, editing, more editing, revising, editing… You get my point. Okay, rewind a bit. I tend to do on tangents when I get excited. You have done it, you wrote a book. Yay! But when you go back and reread and hopefully revise what you wrote,...
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Articles / On Writing
05 May 2014
Divas on Writing: Elements of a Subplot We have previously discussed the elements of plot, but I’m going to give you a quick refresher. There are five basic elements of plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Exposition is back story. Rising action is the action leading up to the climax. This is where the story builds. The climax of the story...
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Articles / On Writing
29 Apr 2014
Quick Tip: Hold that Breath! He breathes. She is breathing. They take a deep breath. He exhales. She inhales. It sucks in a shuddering breath and lets it out through its nose. His breathing is loud. Her chest rose and fell silently… My quick tip would be to never use this type of phrasing in your story, ever, and to just trust me on...
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Articles / On Writing
28 Apr 2014
Become the Boss of Your Writing This article might sound like a pep talk, but to become the boss of your writing you might need some pep. And let’s get real here. For many authors, confidence in their writing is not always easy to come by. One bad review can topple your carefully constructed façade and verify your worst fears regardless of the number of...
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Articles / Diva Chat
23 Apr 2014
Diva Chat: Should there be minimum publishing standards for self-published authors This week’s Diva chat topic: a straightforward question that speaks for itself. With so many indie authors flooding the publishing scene daily, readers are treated to a wide variety of new and interesting books. But there are some doozies that pop up more times than not. The topic of the chat today addresses if we...
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Articles / On Writing
22 Apr 2014
Treating Your Writing Like A Full-Time Job Recently, I edited a book where one of the main characters, a musician, spent several months treating his songwriting as a full-time job. He would get up, spend eight hours a day writing songs—some better than others, obviously—and then he’d call it a day, have dinner, and start again the next day. It forced the artist to...
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