Show, Don’t Tell. It’s an adage we’ve all heard, in some form or other, during our time as a writer. But what does it actually mean? I promise you now, you’re not the first person to ask that question. It’s a pretty ambiguous statement, and over my years in writing I’ve heard a lot of different answers – which, of course, only serves to elevate confusion. Whether you’re an author beginning your journey, someone starting to find their feet or a writer with thirty books and decades of experience, I’m sure you’ve suffered from the confusion associated with this concept …
Three things I learned while writing… Elephant Creek
Welcome to our February ‘Three Things I Learned’ blog. Meet Donna Munro, Donna loves to make her readers smile, laugh, cry and feel deep emotion, with mostly happy ever afters! Donna joins us on the blog today to share her three things she learned from writing her ‘Elephant Creek’! Welcome, Donna!
FABULOUS FICTION with Stella Quinn & guest Alissa Callen
Welcome to Fabulous Fiction, a blog by Stella Quinn which celebrates books so good, you just want to hug them when you’re done reading. Alissa Callen’s novels are warm-hearted and touching. She writes down-to-earth rural communities filled with appealing, genuine characters. Snowy Mountains Daughter is the first book set in the high-country town of Bundilla. STELLA: Tell us a little about your book, Alissa Snowy Mountains Daughter is the first story of my new series set in a tiny book town. The road home isn’t for the faint-hearted … Peony flower farmer Clancy Parker was born and bred in the …
Three Things I learned… Valentine’s Day edition
THREE THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WRITING – HANDFASTED TO THE BEAR with Elina Emerald 1. Write the Ending First I wrote the ending to ‘Handfasted to the Bear’ before I wrote the beginning. For me, knowing how a book ends provides an anchor for my story and everything else is a towline attached to my characters. I can throw in conflicts, turning points and twists if I guide my protagonists to that end point. When I conceptualised this book, I only had a brief backstory to work with. My heroine Orla is a mixed-race woman of colour living in a Scottish …
Three Things I learned… Valentine’s Day edition
THREE THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WRITING – THE BABY with Sian Ceiwen 1. Sometimes you just need to keep writing The Baby took me thirteen weeks to the day to finish and it ended at 164k words. I wrote around 100k of those words in five weeks, but then I floundered for eight weeks to reach the end. I felt as though the book was simply meandering its way to a conclusion. There was some drama, and it was very enjoyable to read, but it wasn’t gripping. You can’t edit a blank page, though. One of my readers who works …
Three Things I learned… Valentine’s Day edition
THREE THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WRITING – RENEGADE WIDOW with Jules Radcliffe 1. Historical accuracy: know when to give a little I’ve always adored historical fiction, whether it’s romance, murder mystery, or action adventure. But I don’t want a modern story with pretty frocks, I want stories to deep-dive into the era they’re set in. No matter how hard an author tries, they’ll never get everything right, but I prefer reading authors who research hard to be authentic. On the other hand, I’m not a total purist. I appreciate authors who convincingly rationalise not-quite-authentic elements if they include them. The …
Three Things I learned… Valentine’s Day edition
THREE THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WRITING – ONCE WE WERE with Keighley Bradford 1. Writing the book was the easy bit. Writing the narrative for this book was the easy bit of the process; it was all the stages after the first draft that had been the hardest. I wrote Once We Were chronologically, becoming acquainted with my characters and their story. By the end of the first draft, however, I knew that this story wasn’t one that could be told from start to finish. So, I introduced a non-linear chaptering style (‘Then’ and ‘Now’), which added a whole new …
Three Things I learned… Valentine’s Day edition
THREE THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WRITING – DADDY’S GIRL with Belinda Williams 1. Just because it’s hard to write, doesn’t mean it will be hard to read Daddy’s Girl is the third and final book in my romantic comedy Freshwater series. Due to Covid resulting in me working fewer hours, I was well ahead of schedule on starting the first draft. Self Made, the previous book in the series, had virtually written itself as there is a lot to be said for writing rom com during lockdown—it’s a great mood lifter! But when I came to Daddy’s Girl, things were …
Three Things I learned… Valentine’s Day edition
We are starting Valentine’s Day with a bang – a Perfectly Paranormal Bang! In addition to three things I learned – RWA gets an inside look at the anthology and its participants with a Q&A! THREE THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WRITING – A PERFECTLY PARANORMAL VALENTINE ANTHOLOGY 1. There are so many great advantages of writing with a group of fellow authors Shared workload of self-publishing Cover – Samantha Marshall Editing – Leisl Leighton & Marnie St Clair Formatting – Georgia Tingley Proofreading – Everyone Promotional Graphics – Samantha Marshall, Leisl Leighton, Georgia Tingley Questionnaire – Helen Howe Other interested …
Character Driven Plotting (which also works for pantsers!) | Kim Lambert
RWA Academy Online One-on-One Course Have you ever read a book where something happened, and it made you stop, and go ‘but that character would never have / couldn’t do…’? It leaves you feeling annoyed, and breaks you out of the story, doesn’t it? Have you ever written yourself into that sort of corner? Where you would have to make your character do something ‘out of character’ or beyond their physical capabilities, to get them out of that corner? If you said yes to any of that, then you’ve experienced the problems which get created when you don’t make sure …