Tweet We’ve been discussing backstory these last few weeks, and we’ll be wrapping it up today. I hope that I’ve shown you how important backstory is and how carefully you need to handle it. We’ll finish today with an exercise that I did with two other writers. You may remember Francesca from the writing sample […]
Tweet As you’ve probably noticed, this month we’re looking at non-fictional books quite a lot. This turned out to be a really spectacular marketing opportunity because, in looking at non-fic books, I discovered that they are the Holy Grail of book marketing how-tos. Do you disbelieve me? Let me take you on a tour through […]
Tweet I spent last month’s Guts & Bolts being pretty hard on Epic Fantasy’s promotional copy. That’s not surprising: I have a complicated relationship with the genre, even going so far as to quit it entirely while I was in college. But I’m going to try and be nicer this time around by dealing with […]
Tweet Last week we discussed point of view. Today we’re going to cover a corollary question: Depending on which point of view you’ve chosen, what is the best way to explore the inner thoughts of your main character(s)? Many of you are probably familiar with internal monologue. It goes kind of like this. Rebekah ducked […]
Tweet Finding a freelance editor these days is pretty easy. We’re pretty much everywhere. Finding an editor who fits your needs, who is right for you, is the hard part. Yes, editors are everywhere, but let’s assume you’re not one of them. Let’s assume you’re a first time author publishing independently. Where should you begin? […]
Tweet Last week I talked about what a successful self-published author I’ve become. I followed that up with a description of the strange stumbling block I’ve placed in my own path. I suspect some of you would be a lot more interested in knowing how I found that success in the first place. That’s not […]
Tweet It looks just like a rose. Smoky shadows sharp contrast within the blooms, Lines of black buried in rosy red, Skin-soft swells that curl upward, inward, then blossom out again. It sounds like summer thunder. One stark, still-shattering strum. It tastes like ash, bitter black, and smells like panicked fear. It feels like winter’s […]
Tweet On Tuesday I talked about my fantasy problem, and the project proposal that solved it. The core of that project proposal involved taking comic book conventions and transplanting them into traditional fantasy novels. I’ve been thinking about that old project a lot lately, and one day it occurred to me that I’ve got a […]
Tweet Way back in January I talked a little bit about playing karate with my little girl. At the time I had all kinds of things to say about her learning respect and trust and large motor skills all in one little activity. At the time, I referred to it as one of her favorite […]
Tweet Courtney asked me regretfully to inform you that a Christmas flu has quite thoroughly humbugged her. For the first time in her long tenure here at Unstressed Syllables, we’ll have to go without a WILAWriTWe. Alas. Send her your well wishes, and know that she’ll be back to educate us all just as soon […]
