Blurbing, dear friends, is the art of condensing. We’ve talked about what a blurb is and discussed its essential elements. We dove into how to streamline a blurb and build emotional momentum by limiting proper nouns and decluttering our details. What’s left is to discuss is writing blurbs that progress —how to take those minimal details…
Category: Writing Fundamentals
Writing Blurbs (Part 2): Limiting Details
In the previous post of this series, I emphasized limiting details when writing blurbs. But why do that—and how? How does an author narrow down exactly what to mention, and what to exclude? Limit or eliminate place names The most obvious reason for this is to avoid visual clutter. Especially in fantasy or historical fiction,…
My experience with a pen name
In addition to using a pen name for different genres or to keep your fictional persona separate from your real-life, there are other reasons someone might choose to write under a nom de plume.
Writing Blurbs (Part 1): The Overview
The challenge of writing a blurb for your book is obvious. I mean, how do we tell the story without telling the whole story? That’s why it took us a whole book in the first place, amiright? I don’t think there’s any perfect formula. I suspect there are also some genre-specific tips out there for…
Get Your NaNoWriMo Project Back on Track
For the sake of this article, I’ll assume you’ve heard of NaNoWriMo, the mad dash to write a 50,000-word novel in November. If you haven’t, click here to check it out. If you have, and you’re participating this year, how are you doing? Are you on track? Have you fallen behind and lost hope of…
Favorite Writing Craft Podcasts and Videos
I’m not a writer by training. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees to become a pediatric speech-language pathologist. Growing up, I wasn’t a fan of my English classes. While I loved reading, learning to diagram a sentence seemed ridiculous. Now that I want to become an author, I need some help developing my writing…
Self-editing: Overview and Editor’s Mask
Self-editing doesn’t mean you won’t need an editor (because here’s a secret: even editors have other editors review their writing). Think of it like checking your homework before you hand it in.
How to write a killer fight scene
If your dream is to write a book so action-packed your reader can’t stop flipping pages, you’re in the right place. My stepdad is a professional martial artist. He’s taught Aikido, the art of Japanese sword, and even trained FBI agents. I grew up with racks full of ancient weapons on the walls, some I…
Top 5 Things Every Author Newsletter Needs
We already talked about what you should STOP doing in an author newsletter. Now let’s focus on what authors can do to meet their marketing goals. When it comes to an author newsletter, there are many ways to approach it. Some authors usethe newsletter to share fun and interesting research that’s going into their books….
My first experience with an editor
The day had come! It was finally that time in my writing journey where I was thinking about querying my book. There was just one more step before I was officially ready: hiring a professional editor. I assumed there would be some suggestions, a few critiques that could easily be fixed. But I never figured…