Ryan Lanz's Blog, page 25

The 10 Emotional Stages of Editing

A long time ago, I started revising and editing my manuscript. And today… I am still revising and editing my manuscript. Rest assured, there have been many emotions involved. Here are some of them. 1. Excitement. Woooooo! I just finished my first draft! I am going to start editing right now! This won’t take too long, […]

Preorder Release! Path of Strangers

  It’s here! I’m excited to announce the preorder release of my third fantasy novel, Path of Strangers. The cover was made by the crew over at Damonza, who were a pleasure to work with. They do great work, and if you ever have a need for a book cover, check them out.   Blurb: Dark […]

How to Tackle Your Writing Confidence Issues

As I listen to the struggles of the writing community, one thing I see come up time and time again is writers stating they lack confidence. They’ll ask, “How can I be more confident in my work?” Is this you as well?   I BELIEVE THERE ARE FIVE REASONS WHY WRITERS LACK CONFIDENCE IN THEIR […]

Agency – What Is It and Do Your Characters Have It?

What is “agency”? It’s a term you may have heard before.  It means the characters make decisions that shape their environment and push the plot forward.  In essence, it’s the difference between the plot happening to the character (bad) and the character happening to the plot (good). Ensuring your characters have agency is critical to […]

Research for Fiction Writers

When I was a high school student, research papers were my downfall. For weeks I’d diligently scour the reference shelves at the library and take copious notes by hand on index cards (these were the days before photocopiers), and long before I ever exhausted my sources, I’d realize I only had a day or two […]

What the “Wheel of Time” Did Right

(Relatively spoiler free)   Occasionally in my reading, I like to highlight a particular book and discuss what I feel it did well on. Some of the best learning can be done by observing writing that is well executed. I am currently rereading the Wheel of Time series, which starts with The Eye of the World. […]

Are You Invested in Your Book?

When you finish writing your book, few people will doubt you’re committed to your writing. You’ve spent months or years putting it on paper, and hopefully poured your heart into every word. If the work is personal enough, you’ve invested a great deal of yourself. If nothing else, you’ve invested your time and talent. But […]

The “Bread” and “Meat” of Writing

It has taken me years and years of writing my own novels, stories and nonfiction, not to mention editing countless others’ manuscripts, to finally over time realize that there is such a thing as bread and meat in writing. What the hell am I talking about? Simple. I am constantly telling my book clients to […]

12 Surprises I Found Marketing My Debut Novel

Marketing To Hunt a Sub, my debut novel, is a whole lot different from my non-fiction pieces. In those, I could rely on my background, my expertise in the subject, and my network of professional friends to spread the word and sell my books. Fiction–not so much. For one thing, I don’t have prior fiction […]

3 Tips For Writing When Overcome By Writer’s Block

When Maya Angelou spoke about her daily writing routines, she described how she rented a hotel downtown and arrived there at 6:30 in the morning. She would write, stay until about two in the afternoon, then go home and look over what she had written that morning. My question when I read that here was: […]