Everybody’s a Critic

It's been a while since we talked agents and querying on this blog, hasn't it? I stopped querying about a year ago now. I just couldn't do it anymore. After years and years of rejection--hundreds of queries on multiple projects--I had to stop for the sake of my mental health. Despite having strong queries, I…

7 Tips for Beginner Writers

Write the stories you want to read. Don't worry about what others will--or might--think. Read everything Fiction, nonfiction, books outside your genre--read it all. Learn to read critically The best way to learn how to be a better writer is to examine how the authors you love write. How do they show emotion? How do…

Things to do while waiting for #Pitchwars or Query responses

1. Work on your next book. You're not planning to rest on your laurels, are you? 2. Send out another round of queries. Obviously, this doesn't apply to Pitchwars, since that's against the rules, but I recommend sending out multiple queries at once. I usually batch mine in groups of 3-5. It takes about 30…

Tips for Transitioning from Short to Long Fiction

I recently got into a discussion on Twitter about transitioning from short fiction to writing novels. The person I was talking to had difficulties, because by the time they wrote a one page synopsis, they basically had the entire story on one page, from beginning to end. They'd become so used to writing short stories…

Writer’s Block & Building Blocks, Part III

The conclusion for my 3 part series on writer's block. Part 1 covers mental blocks, and Part 2 plot & setting issues. The second lesson I learned while writing The Spider's Web (and several subsequent stories) is that antagonists are hard. One of the hardest things for me to do is create realistic, fleshed out…

Writer’s Block & Building Blocks, Part I

While I was on hiatus, someone on Twitter asked for suggestions for overcoming writing blocks. While I answered her in tweet form (a very long tweet chain) I though I would expand on it here. This is the first in a 3 part series. For more about plot and setting issues click here, and character…