Category: How To and Tips
Are Two Heads Better Than One?
Writing is a solitary and very personal process. Alone at our writing desks, we struggle with word count and plot, accompanied only by our self-doubt and bull-headed determination. No wonder the prospect of sharing some of that isolation with another writer is so appealing, and yet collaboration is a relatively rare, and slightly mythical form. […]
Sex In Women’s Fiction, Part One: Writing Sex
Part one of a three part series about Sex In Women’s Fiction I write stories about women – stories that chronicle the wonderful, harrowing, funny, mess, fabulous, and occasionally sordid details of their lives. And, inevitably, there comes a time in every manuscript when my main character decides that she’s going to have sex. Before […]
How Writing Stories Made Me A Better Corporate Leader
HOW WRITING STORIES MADE ME A BETTER CORPORATE LEADER When business influencers talk about the top five qualities of a good leader, emotional intelligence (EQ) will be on almost everyone’s list. I think EQ is important, don’t get me wrong, but storytelling is a vital skill that hardly anyone mentions. The one thing I learned […]
My First Writers’ Workshop
Frankly, I was scared to go. School was decades behind me and I had a successful career as a magazine editor. Why put myself out there with a work of fiction I’d been fussing over for years? On the other hand, I had been fussing over that story for years on my own with no […]
What Happens When An Unreliable Character Pops Into Your Head?
The short answer: you write his story. Here’s what happened to me. Last summer I was working on the first book in what would be a women’s fiction series at the request of my agent. You see, with the exception of one of my previous novels, my books were considered women’s fiction, even though some […]
Hook Them with Hope
As writers, we’ve all heard that to keep a reader turning pages, we should hook them from the start. That much is true, but something else I’ve learned is that once you have their interest, you can also keep them hooked by giving them hope. Some of the common themes throughout my books are difficult […]
Ten Things I Learned as a New Author
While long-published authors put my meager knowledge to shame, there are some important lessons I learned as a new author. Needless to say, getting attention for a novel with all the competition in the publishing world is a tough assignment. Here are the most important things I learned during the process of publishing first novel. […]
Dialogue – It’s Not A Conversation
Dialogue charts a middle path between authenticity and art in writing. It reveals personality, and in this way it is closely linked to character. It advances the story, and in this way it is closely linked with plot. It adds a layer of verisimilitude, and in this way it is closely linked with setting. Excellent […]
How To Pitch A Series
A few weeks ago, I announced the Gamer Girl series, three books coming out from Kensington’s Lyrical Press starting in 2019. Since this is my second series, many people have asked me how to get an editor to buy multiple books rather than just one. Initially, if you do not know the editor and have […]
On Writing a Series – Practical Hints and Tips
Everybody loves a series, especially readers – and publishers! – in the crime genre. I’m currently working on the fourth novel in my Lotte Meerman series and for those of you working on a series yourselves, I would like to share some practical tips from my personal experience. Tip 1: Readers will read your books […]
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