Achillean Romance with Fangs
I went through the process of self-publishing Our Bloody Pearl this summer. Even with all the guides in the world it turned out to be a very grueling experience. I’ll be doing it again with Quasi Stellar soon, but I also hope to traditionally publish The Warlord Contracts trilogy. First, let’s get this out of […]
Some writers confuse “you must further the plot with every scene” with “heavy plot handling must happen constantly.” (Which is a shame, because the latter is not only incorrect, but can make your character’s interactions stiff and boring.) It’s okay to let your characters joke. It’s okay if they get off track of the plot […]
While I have a book published (siren! pirates! okay yeah enough with the marketing), I’m still editing the first novel I wrote. It’s okay if your first novel takes a long time. It’s okay if you have to rewrite it and rewrite it and then thoroughly edit it and then rewrite it again. It’s okay if you take long breaks from […]
These types of relationships can be some of the most interesting and enjoyable, both to read and write, because they show us many sides of the same characters and the growth from a hatred to mixed feelings and finally to genuine love and acceptance is often heartwarming to experience. But relationships like also require finesse to […]
I’m incredibly disappointed with the trend in stories (especially ‘edgy’ YA novels) to bombard the reader with traumatic situations, angry characters, and relationship drama without ever first giving them a reason to root for a better future. As a reader… I might care that the main siblings are fighting if they had first been shown […]
What is a redemption arc? “Redemption: An act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake.” An act, implying action, which is created by choices, which just happens to be the basis of character development. Some writers confuse redemption arcs with things they are not, and end up creating situations which aren’t redemption arcs at all, but […]
A simplistic guide on writing helpful book reviews;For readers who don’t know what the hell to say, or don’t have the time to say it. I know some of you are reading Our Bloody Pearl, so I wanted to take a moment to talk about reviews! Why should you write reviews for books you enjoy? Any positive […]
When you struggle to connect the main plot points. Fore word: This is how I do the thing. It’s not the only way to do the thing, nor the “right way,” just one way, which happens to work really well for me. I hope it helps you too, but if it doesn’t, there’s still a good […]
First off, I have to put a disclaimer here because I tend to rope past progressive tense into passive voice, because they both rely on “to be” verbs a lot, and because I’m lazy. I’ll talk about them both separately for once. 1. Passive voice can lead to confusing sentences. In non-grammar jargon, passive voice often […]
Most of us are quite familiar with the term, but if you’ve heard it passed around without a proper definition, a Mary Sue is a (traditionally female) character who’s known for being flawless. She’s powerful, beautiful, intelligent, more skilled than her peers, gets herself out of every bad situation with ease, (usually wowing a crowd of bystanders in the […]
