• Dawn McClure

        Published: November 3rd, 2011  Views: 611 
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    Sounds kind of icky, right?

    So, what is an idea germ? An idea germ is the small spark within your imagination, the conception of your story. With nurturing, this germ grows into an amazing story. The first step is to discover the germ.

    So, how do you go about discovering such a thing? There are many processes which can be taken to uncover the spark, to bring it into recognition, which gives you the opportunity to nurture it to life. Below, you will find a few methods, but the possibilities are endless. Each individual will find his own road to digging up the germs. I only hope to give you a starting point.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: November 2nd, 2011  Views: 1689 
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    If you’re taking the plunge and trying to write 50,000 words this November as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), you might appreciate these survival tips for hitting your 1,667 words a day and becoming a NaNo winner!

    Plan and plot. Ideally you started this before November 1. But, if not, sketch out, even in one-sentence form, which scene you’re writing every day and what needs to happen in that scene. You could do this each Sunday for the coming week, so you know where you’re headed and don’t have to slow down to figure it out.
    Categories:
    1. Writing Life
        Published: November 1st, 2011  Views: 458 
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    I'm a 2010 NaNoWriMo "winner" in more ways than one. Yes, I'm a winner because I wrote at least 50,000 words in the month of November, but also because the novel just sold to Ellora's Cave! So NaNoWriMo definitely has its uses. However, NaNo (as it's commonly shortened) isn't for everyone. There are several things you have to do and be to "win" NaNo.

    First, you must have the time to devote to NaNo. In order to make 50k words in 30 days, you have to write 1,666 words a day. If you can't do that every day or more than that some days, NaNo might not be the best writing exercise for you. Obviously you can do NaNoWriMo knowing you won't "win", but instead using it as a way to spur yourself into writing more or writing consistently, but if you want to stay in the true spirit of NaNo, you'll try to write at least 50k words.

    Categories:
    1. Writing Life
        Published: October 31st, 2011  Views: 263 

    Congratulations to all Savvy Authors!

    Our first congratulations this week goes out to Savvy Authors member Sandra Clarke. She signed a new contract with MuseItUp Publishing for her book, Mind Over Matter, Book I in the Anderson Security, Inc. series. It's a paranormal romantic suspense written under the name S.J. Clarke.

    Donna Steele signed a contract with Rebel Ink Press for her book, Rth Rising, with a release date on March 2012. Congratulations, Donna!

    Categories:
    1. Craft
    2. Industry
    3. Workshops
    4. Worldbuilding
    5. Savvy U Courses
    6. Research
    7. Writing Life
        Published: October 31st, 2011  Views: 433 
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    Using video on your blog can instantly help you build trust, credibility and expert standing in your community. Video can also give your current and potential readers a keen sense of what you write and how you do it. For instance, if you’re blogging about “How I Write,” wouldn’t your message be more powerful if you could add video to that post along with your image, voice and passion?

    These days it’s even easier, less expensive and very handy to take video with your smartphones and digital cameras. And once you’ve created your video it’s a snap to upload it to Facebook, YouTube or Vimeo–once your video is shared, your video may even go viral if your friends share its compelling content. I also found a new site called Animoto which allows you to create a video/slideshow post accompanied by music using your photos. Now that’s easy!
        Published: October 31st, 2011  Views: 887 
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    I’m thrilled that readers of my first book, Double Crossing, have raved about the page-turning chapter endings, the rich settings and realistic historical details, the suspense and in-depth characters. Writing is never easy, no matter what the genre. It’s an art—and crafting scenes to draw the reader in and keep them hooked until the last page takes hard work.

    I learned that readers (even ones who don’t read historical novels) love to experience the “story world” right along with the characters. What does it take? Using the five senses and deep Point of View, taking care to balance a razor’s edge between too subtle and overload. In Double Crossing, I used First Person POV—primarily because I wanted that immediate close bonding between the heroine and the reader. The second part, using the five senses in Lily Granville’s point of view, took a bit more work.
    Every writer can easily visualize their story world, even using 3rd Person POV. It takes going beyond the “eyes” of a character to hear, smell, feel and even taste within the scene’s action. In the following excerpt, I tried to use two or three senses at various times as Lily walks along a street in Nebraska, 1869:
    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 30th, 2011  Views: 573 
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    I've been a published writer for five years now and I've watched as a lot of "trends" have come and gone in the publishing world. I remember when E-Publishers were barely getting started and authors were still a bit hesitant in submitting to them. There were so many pros and cons, so many nay-sayers and critics: "If you're not published with a Traditional Publisher then you're NOT published." But despite the Scarlet "P" being thrown out there, authors took the plunge and many became published with E-Pubs. And their careers flew! New authors were launched, older authors found places for their unwanted books, and more E-pubs began to appear. After several years of success for many authors, others were less critical, and the "stain" of being an e-published author slowly disappeared. Take a look and you'll find countless authors already with Traditional publishers who have also went the E-pubbed route.
    Categories:
    1. Industry
    2. Writing Life
        Published: October 30th, 2011  Views: 767 
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    It’s that time of year. The time when pumpkins glow in the night, when children dress in costumes, when the full harvest moon appears larger in the night sky then at any other time and when everyone tells ghost stories. But do you ever wonder why this time of year is so…haunted? Why this time of year is the scariest?

    The tradition of Halloween goes back all the way to the Celts. They divided their year into the “light half”, mainly consisting of spring and summer, and the “dark half” constituting fall and winter. They celebrated the end of the light half of the year with the festival of Samhain. They believed that on this night, souls of the dead who had died during the year roamed the streets and began their travel to the Underworld. And since not all of the souls were friendly, they would leave treats and gifts to pacify the evil spirits. The Celts believed that on this night, the spirit world and the living interacted.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
    2. Research
        Published: October 28th, 2011  Views: 520 
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    Assumptions:

    You read widely and deeply.
    You understand the elements of storytelling.
    You write commercial fiction.
    You recognize hundreds of tips exist to raise stories to the level of well-crafted.
    You accept that new brain surgeons don’t operate on the President of the U.S. and new novelists don’t get first drafts published by a top-raked publisher.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 28th, 2011  Views: 581 
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    Because it took me hours of 'How-to' video watching, bombarding my friends who helped me get started with questions and more questions, and then multiple times to finally get my work uploaded cleanly, I decided to write these steps for myself in case I ever decide to self-pub again. Then I wondered if they wouldn't save others the frustration and desk pounding that I suffered when I tried to do it without the proper knowledge. Now, having said that, I have no idea if a professional would agree with this guide as I've written it. Maybe there's a better way to describe the procedure or I might have missed something that didn't affect my work, and if so I apologize. But I wanted to write it in such a way that, if months go by and my memory dims, (more than likely) these 12 steps will remind me clearly and concisely.
    Categories:
    1. Industry
        Published: October 28th, 2011  Views: 1575 
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    When you write your characters’ gut reactions, your readers will feel it in their guts, too.

    When your readers deeply share your characters’ feelings, they are no longer like spectators watching a circus—those visceral emotional reactions transport the reader right into the ring, into the bodies of the clowns and acrobats and bareback riding girls.


    If you add visceral emotion—gut feelings—to your scenes, your readers will keep reading late into the night.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 28th, 2011  Views: 676 
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    I know that staring down at a blank page and contemplating a completed 50K-word writing project in one month is a scary prospect. To start a manuscript fresh on November 1 and end up with a 50,000 words, (approximately 175 pages) by 11:59:59, November 30, is a daunting task that not everyone completes, and many who do compete it wind up with just a bunch of typing. The NaNo folks even warn you of that. But the concept is that by forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. The goal is forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create, to build without tearing down. But what’s the point in not tearing down along the way if you end up razing the shack you built at the end? So how do you capture the same frenzied writing adrenaline that taps your creativity that NaNo invokes, complete the 50K word challenge and end up with something that is actually worth reading? Simple - Look at your NaNo novel as a project and apply project management principles.

    Categories:
    1. Writing Life
        Published: October 27th, 2011  Views: 435 
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    I have an unholy fascination with looking inside people’s homes. I meet someone, and I’m itching to check out their kitchen or walk through their bedroom. I picture their wall art and couch cushions. I wonder what kind of tschotskes line their mantle. I do this, because I believe the home is a showcase of our soul.

    Think about it – where else do you display intimate details of your deepest emotions? I see a window into your heart from the pictures you hang on your wall, the children’s art and travel mementos you display. I get a look at your personality from the furniture you select (the big squishy couch, or the austere modern one?) the colors on your walls (a dark red dining room? really?) and the capacity of your junk drawer (ooh, you’ve got two. I like that in a person!).
    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 27th, 2011  Views: 651 
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    On the path to achieving my goal of becoming a better writer, I’ve tried just about every tip the writing books, blogs, and experts suggest, including reading (both within and outside my chosen genre), taking classes and workshops, and writing, writing, writing.

    A couple of years ago, I added judging contests to that list. Evaluating entries is more beneficial than you may realize. It gives me insight into how other writers craft their stories and how they handle everything from the flow of dialog and narrative to the amount and intensity of sexual tension. It also gives me practice identifying common grammatical errors, which helps me hone my own skills in pinpointing the errors contaminating my own writing.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 27th, 2011  Views: 877 
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    I admit it. I’m a writing dinosaur. No, it’s true. At my first job at a daily newspaper they were still using slugs and hot type. Not sure what those are? Not to worry. Like Tara, they’re gone with the wind. The paper quickly switched to a computerized version -- read here a computer the size of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey swallowing up the entire production room -- and eventually to a half-breed version, a neat little machine that replaced our IBM Selectrics.

    My point in sharing all this is the exponential speed in which publishing has evolved. In fact, it was fodder for discussion at the recent Killer Nashville writing conference I attended. To wit, back-and-forth discussion concerning Kindles, Nooks, et al, replacing the traditional book. Consensus? Content will always remain the same but the delivery system will continue to change. I mean who would want to curl up with a clay tablet or scroll today? Really.
    Categories:
    1. Industry
        Published: October 26th, 2011  Views: 357 

    Think about the books you’ve loved. What makes them memorable? Did they make you squirm on the edge of your seat like Lisa Jackson or Sharon Donovan, laugh out loud like Jennifer Crusie or Jaquie Rogers, sigh with satisfaction like Marta Perry or Celia Yeary, or cry with the main characters like Maeve Binchy or Luann Rice? If you remember the book, I’ll wager the author pulled at least one strong emotion from your subconscious.

    One of the ways we engage the reader is by building characters with whom the reader identifies. The heroine running for her life should raise our heartbeat. The hero who has suffered unbearable loss should tug at our heart. Great fiction (whatever each of us regards as great) elicits strong emotions. Pulls the reader into the mind of one of the characters. Or each character.


    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 26th, 2011  Views: 937 
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    Where is the current technology going to lead us in the future? Better yet, what does the future hold for writers? Many people tend to have the opinion that e-books will replace print books while others believe the popularity of e-books is short-lived. As a writer as well as a reader I tend to believe they will eventually be able to exist side by side. The format is fairly new when you consider the age of print books which were preceded by stone writings and scrolls. Books first entered the industrial market in the 13th century and have evolved from that point into modern technology up to and including POD (Publish on Demand) and e-Books.

    Categories:
    1. Industry
        Published: October 25th, 2011  Views: 691 
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    Huge numbers of erotic romance books have a sex scene in the shower. Likely all that steamy heat, scented with yummy shower jells and even yummier naked men, is why such scenes are very popular. Besides vertical sex is just plain hotter than horizontal sex.

    Hot tub sex is quite common. Again, near naked or totally naked bodies, plus steamy heat is just crying out for a sex scene.
    Categories:
    1. Craft
        Published: October 25th, 2011  Views: 719 
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    What do Dante's Inferno, Homer's Odysseus, and Jim Butcher's Dresden series have in common? Each is based on a consistent and vividly imagined mythology that connects compellingly to the real world.

    Consistent and compelling sounds great, but how do you start building a world? The obvious connection between mythology and the real world are the archetypes, legends, or myths we draw from. Vampires and werewolves, gods and demons--those are strong and well-known archetypes. But the point of connection . . . ah, that's easy, too. That’s your protagonist. She is where readers connect to your story. She's also where magic connects with mundane. So--as with everything else about story--when we talk about world-building, we're also talking about characters.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
    2. Worldbuilding
        Published: October 24th, 2011  Views: 1034 
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    You’ve heard more times than you can count that word choice matters in your manuscript, but the right word choice also matters The words we authors use to tell ourselves what we’re doing, what we’re going to do, or what our characters are doing or are going to. Choose the right word for any of these and you’ll get the right words in your draft. Conversely, choose the wrong words and I guarantee you’ll find the wrong words on the page.

    While this is true for scenes as a whole, here we want to focus on the the launch of a scene--those first few paragraphs that get the scene moving.

    Categories:
    1. Craft
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