When I was enrolled in Kennesaw State's graduate writing program back in 2000, I remember learning about character epiphany--the point in a novel when the protagonist realizes something important about themselves. As writers, I think we also have our own epiphanies eventually. That old adage of "write what you know" is good advice; however, writing "who you are" is even more important. Being authentic to yourself. Trying to write for the market isn't going to work if the premise isn't … [Read more...]
Ten Mistakes Writers Make
April 22, 2009 Leave a Comment
I was reading Nathan Bransford's latest This Week in Publishing post, which always has lots of good links, and one of them was a link to Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) by Pat Holt. Very interesting. The top ten mistakes are the following: 1. REPEATS 2. FLAT WRITING 3. EMPTY ADVERBS 4. PHONY DIALOGUE 5. NO-GOOD SUFFIXES 6. THE “TO BE” WORDS 7. LISTS 8. SHOW, DON’T TELL 9. AWKWARD PHRASING 10. COMMAS Uh, this list looks a lot … [Read more...]
The McVeigh Agency Looking For Diversity
April 21, 2009 Leave a Comment
The McVeigh Agency is a new agency founded by Mark McVeigh, formally Editorial Director at Simon and Schuster/Aladdin. I've heard Mark speak at many conferences and he is a very knowledgeable and experienced editor, so he'll probably be a great agent as well. The agency is also looking for diversity. I loved what he had to say about it: This country is based on the idea of a melting pot, and I want my clients and their books to reflect that. No matter what color you are, I want to … [Read more...]
Gearing Up for the AACBWI Conference
April 20, 2009 Leave a Comment
The AACBWI Conference is now only 5 days away. It should be a great experience! I finished the HOW TO LAND AN AGENT: STEP BY STEP workshop presentation notes last weekend. I based the presentation on the 7 steps that I completed to find my agent. I'll be sure to post some details of the workshop after the conference. On April 25th, the day of the conference, we plan to do status updates via Twitter. You can follow the tweets here. I'll also try to do some blog updates as well, but … [Read more...]
