Ryan Lanz's Blog, page 15

Five Grammar Rules Every Self-Published Writer Needs To Know

  As an editor, I’ve edited hundreds of books. One thing that you quickly notice is that there are certain mistakes that you see repeated time and again. This article contains the five most common grammar and punctuation mistakes I come across on a daily basis. My hope is that by sharing some of these […]

Authors, Are You Floundering On Twitter?

Social media can be a joy, expanding an author’s reach to new audiences and introducing us to fellow authors and other sources of support. I can also be something which absorbs our time, taking us away from the important task of writing. At its worst, we invest time and effort for little reward. I must […]

The Reality of Judging a Book by Its Cover

I think it’s time we talk about book covers. We all know the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but let’s be honest, this usually applies to people, and not actually a book. If we are really keeping it honest here, then readers and authors alike understand that books really are judged by […]

Writing (Un)Awkward Romantic Scenes

I’ve been hesitant to give Wheeler to friends and family or even tell my coworkers I wrote a novel. Why? Like the protagonist, Loren Mackenzie, I only let people see what I want them to see. I keep my cards close to the vest. I’m a Scorpio, it’s who I am. But in very unScorpio […]

Which Kind(s) of Editing Does Your Novel Need?

Notice the title of this post is not Does your novel need editing? The answer to that question is YES. Always. I don’t care if you wrote The Great Gatsby of the modern day; your novel needs to be edited. For those of you going the traditional publishing route, this question is a little less important. Personally, […]

How To Recycle Writing Ideas

So you have a brilliant idea, but things aren’t working out quite the way you expected. Or maybe you are writing an article and want to know how to get the most out of your subject matter. Should you just scrap your idea after one use? In case you couldn’t tell from the title, the […]

The Goal is to Have Motivated Characters

Everyone has heard of the Plotters vs. Pantsers camps for authors. Plotters take their story and attack it with outlines, guidelines, plotlines, and beat sheets. Pansters take it in a more relaxed way, writing as the story flows with plenty of detours as needed. Most writers take elements from each side and fall somewhere on a spectrum […]

Weird Ways to Make Money As a Writer

My hands were shaking. I was quitting a job with AmeriCorps earlier than planned, and felt like I was back in my last semester of college (minus Pub Webb.) Although I had the support of a retail job, I had to ask myself, “What did I want to do with my life?” Write? Looks like […]

How to Write 5,000 Words a Day

For at least 16 consecutive days now, I’ve been averaging 5,000 words a day; that’s around 80,000 words in a little over 2 weeks. In the past, I’ve had certain occasional days where I wrote 8,000 – 10,000 words, but that often meant I was unable to write for the rest of that week. Now, […]

The Four Women-in-Fantasy Tropes I’m Bored With

I know, I know. It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these ‘Things I’m So Damn Tired Of’ posts. And you guys have been so lonely without them. So very, very lonely. Today’s dose of hatred and despair is leveled at four fantasy heroine types who, especially in YA fiction, have become […]