Ryan Lanz's Blog, page 7

Four Things I’ve Learned From Running A Blog For Four Years

My blog is four today. I’m still amazed that it just started with a random “Hmm… Why don’t I make a blog?” idea all that time ago. I thought that I’d share some of the things that I’ve learnt from making a blog for this length of time, in case they’re useful to you too. […]

Time Anxiety and the Writer

The passage of time is something we can’t control. But as deadlines approach and major events come and go, the anxiety felt as time zips by can be overwhelming and persistent. This is a term colloquially known as Time Anxiety. I’ve seen this anxiety in a lot of writers, including myself. Besides the seemingly ever-present […]

Set Up a Writing Date

Writing is such a solitary endeavor that sometimes we neglect connecting with our friends face-to-face. That’s bad, people! We need each other. (A friend of mine jokes about throwing introvert parties where everyone is instructed to bring a book to read. That’s totally my idea of a fun time! But writers need to socialize too.) […]

How Writers Should Handle Bad Reviews

Don’t tweet that the reviewer is awful or a bad person. It’ll only make you seem nutty, and most people won’t know about the review until you tell them anyway. Don’t make snarky, veiled remarks about this reviewer when you’re interviewed, because sulking and bitterness will just end up making you come off as a […]

Three Things I’ve Learned From Running a Blog For Three Years

So, as I did on my blog’s first anniversary in 2014, and I thought that I’d list a few of the things that I’ve learnt about running a blog since then. Yes, I know that this goes against my “don’t blog about blogging” rule – but it’s a special occasion!   1) Some things change, […]

In a Writer’s Beginning

The bible states ‘in the beginning was the word’ but that’s not quite how it is for authors. If you’re going to write a book you need to make some decisions and do a bit of ground work. First, is it fiction or non-fiction? If the latter, you have a pile of organizing to do. […]

How to Reuse Story Material

Two blogs have recently offered some excellent and very interesting viewpoints on where stories come from. Today, I want to examine other people’s writing as a source of inspiration, and Monday, I’ll post an analysis of the inspirations of Pride & Prejudice, in response to A Pilgrim in Narnia’s examination of the stories within that book. In the post […]

The Happenings of a Pre-Write: The Good and the Bad

Some authors swear by pre-writing and can’t imagine it any other way. These authors may pre-write and plan for weeks or months before they write the first word of their rough draft, meticulously planning scenes and mapping characters to ensure everything makes sense. Others prefer to sit down and start writing. These authors may have […]

What Social Media Sites Should an Author Have?

There are so many social media sites, but does an author really need to be on all of them? Is one or more of them indispensable to the serious author or do they just clutter and waste time? And the answer is… *draws deep breath* everyone has different views. What a surprise. From what I’ve […]

Respect the Reviewer: How to Find, Contact, and Stay on the Good Side of Book Reviewers

Here’s the second Respect the Reviewer article I’ve written.  This is for all authors out there.  While some tips might be obvious others you may not have thought of, either way I hope some of these tips will help you find a reviewer and go about contacting them the right way. All authors know the […]