“Z” is for Zip By

My goodness, this month has flown! It’s been a LOT of fun working the A to Z challenge and getting to know other participants. I hope my posts have been informative and entertaining and that we’ll all continue to circulate and converse. I’m always open for feedback, so feel free to let me know what [...]

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Flake-out Friday–”Y” is for Yummy Things

Okay, so I have an ENORMOUS sweet tooth. Seriously. That’s why I’d like to dedicate the “Y” post to Yummy things. Here are some of my favorite sweet stuffs (I NEED them for quality writing, so don’t judge me, ‘kay? ):   I’m totally drooling right now. Sooooo, what are your favorite snacks???

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“X” is for X’ing it out

What, praytell, do I mean by this? Well, I’ve come across a couple blog posts lately about the dastardly delete button and writers’ struggles with it. In my early writing days, I was quite afraid of the darn thing. I loved my wonky words so much that I couldn’t stomach the idea of cutting them [...]

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“W” is for Worry Woes

Okay, so I’ve finally getting my YA dystopian to where I want it. Which means the next step is polishing the query letter (AKA document of doom) and synopsis (AKA I don’t wanna I don’t wanna I don’t wanna). (I don’t have a complex about these things or anything. *shifty eyes*) So, what is it [...]

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“V” is for Visualize

It’s a writer’s job to paint a picture with words. We have to describe settings, create movement, elicit sounds and smells, heck, even mimic touch. Keeping all this going takes a lot of mental power, IMHO. Personally, I focus on picturing an entire scene in my mind, through my main character’s eyes. I literally try [...]

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Mental Health Monday–”U” is for Understanding

Part of my role as a psychiatrist is to convey a sense of understanding to my patients. A lot of times, people experience frustration, rejection, loneliness, despair when they don’t feel “heard.” I’m sure we’ve all been through this. Turning to writing, I think it’s safe to say that our characters want to be understood too. As [...]

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“T” is for Time for another blog chain post!

Margie starts off another blog chain round with this fabulous question: “How do you get in the mindset of your genre? Do you research people or facts? Do you just reach into the recesses of your mind for events that would make a good story? Something else?” I guess the way I get in the [...]

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Flake-out Friday–”S” is for Suspense

Creating suspense can be a challenging thing. Here’s a link of Alfred Hitchcock describing his take on mystery versus suspense at an AFI Seminar in 1970. (YouTube won’t let me embed it). Here’s an example of how a cat works the suspense angle. Basically, there’s a slow build up and then the BAM! ending. All [...]

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“R” is for Rorschach

A blog buddy and fellow Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog contributor, Sarah Fine, is hosting a blog contest over at The Strangest Situation. All you have to do is look at a Rorschach blot and comment on what it looks like. Then, she will analyze your mind and describe you darkest and deepest desires. JUST [...]

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“Q” is for Quality Versus Quantity

When I first started writing, I could slap out a rough draft in 2-3 weeks, a month tops. Hitting a daily word count of 4-5000 words was no problem. (Remember that obsession post from the other day? Yeah, I spent every waking hour writing–aside from work, of course.) BUT, as I learned the craft, I [...]

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