Janice Hardy's Blog, page 81
February 22, 2019
Twitter Pitch Like You Mean It!
By Alex J. Cavanaugh, @AlexJCavanaugh Part of The Writer's Life Series
JH: Pitch parties have grown more popular over the years, and many a writer has found an agent through one. Alex J. Cavanaugh takes to the podium today to share just how these pitch parties work.
Alex J. Cavanaugh works in web design, graphics, and technical editing. A fan of all things science fiction, his interests range from books and movies to music and games. Online he is the Ninja Captain and founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, which hosts #IWSGPit every January. He’s the author of Amazon Best-Sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, CassaStorm, and Dragon of the Stars . The author lives in the Carolinas with his wife.
Website | Insecure Writers Support Group | Twitter
Take it away Alex…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 21, 2019
February 20, 2019
Act One: All Setup or Does it Need More?
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy How much goes into setting up the beginning of a novel?
Novel beginnings don’t make it easy on us poor writers. We have to introduce characters, set the scene, ground readers in a new world (real life or make believe), and we have to do something compelling to entice those readers to keep reading.
Story structure helps with this, giving us a proven path to take after that first sentence is written: Opening scene leads to inciting event leads to end of act one. That encompasses the beginning, and act one is essentially the part of the novel where the story is set up. Introduce the protagonist, put them on the plot path, and turn them loose to resolve the story’s conflict.
And that’s where the trouble starts for some writers.
They have the opening scene down pat. They know what the inciting event is. But after that it gets fuzzy, and they wonder…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 19, 2019
How to Write a Real Page-Turner
By Laurisa White Reyes, @lwreyes Part of the How They Do It Series
JH: No matter what they write, I think every writer hopes for a book readers can’t put down. Please help me welcome Laurisa White Reyes to the lecture hall today, to share some tips on how to create a page-turner.
Laurisa White Reyes is the Senior Editor of Skyrocket Press & Author Services. She has published sixteen books, including 8 Secrets to Successful Self-Publishing and the SCBWI Spark Award winner The Storytellers . Laurisa also provides personal coaching for writers. To connect with her, visit Skyrocket Press.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |
Take it away Laurisa…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 18, 2019
Goals-Motivations-Conflicts: The Engine That Keeps a Story Running
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Without a strong GMC, your story engine can stall.
With “What’s your story about?” being a common question for writers, it’s easy to think about our stories as being one conflict or idea. We pose a problem, and then the book is spent trying to solve that problem. We postulate an idea, and we go on to explore that idea. We introduce a character, and we live in that character’s life for a while.
While stories might be about one problem, the plot is actually made up of many pieces all building on each other toward a resolution. Just like words form sentences, sentences form paragraphs, and paragraphs form pages, which is turn create scenes that form chapters and chapters that form acts. Everything builds to create a larger construct.
At the end of it all, is a novel (or short story if you prefer).
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 17, 2019
Sunday Writing Tip: Examine Your Filter Words
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Each week, I’ll offer a tip you can take and apply to your WIP to help improve it. They’ll be easy to do and shouldn’t take long, so they’ll be tips you can do without taking up your Sunday. Though I do reserve the right to offer a good tip now and then that will take longer—but only because it would apply to the entire manuscript.
This week, eliminate or revise any filter words that aren’t working
Filter words are words that put an extra layer between the POV character and the reader, such as thought, knew, realized, felt, smelled, heard, etc. They’re a form of telling, and can distance readers from the story. The narrative distance determines how told a filter word feels. A close narrative distance, such as first person, feels very told if a lot of filter words are used, where an distant omniscient narrator isn’t as affected by them, because the entire story is filtered through an outside narrator.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 16, 2019
Real Life Diagnostics: Putting Subtext Into a Scene
Critique By Maria D'Marco Real Life Diagnostics is a weekly column that studies a snippet of a work in progress for specific issues. Readers are encouraged to send in work with questions, and we diagnose it on the site. It’s part critique, part example, and designed to help the submitter as well as anyone else having a similar problem.
If you're interested in submitting to Real Life Diagnostics, please check out these guidelines.
Submissions currently in the queue: Zero
Please Note: As of today, RLD slots are open.
This week’s questions:
1. Can you detect any subtext from Christian's side―that he's interested in Willow, or is it too subtle. OR, is subtle just right for the start of the story. I find the romance genre the most difficult to write, fearing I'll come across as cheesy or too cliché.
2. Anything else I need to drum up or tone down?
Market/Genre: Short story
On to the diagnosis…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 15, 2019
Three Ways One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder Tool Will Help Writers
By Angela Ackerman, @AngelaAckermanPart of The Writer’s Life Series
JH: Writers are almost always looking for useful tools to help them develop their stories, and today, Angela Ackerman visits the lecture hall to share her new character-building tool. Please give her a warm welcome.
Angela Ackerman is a writing coach, international speaker, and co-author of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (now a expanded 2nd edition) as well as six others. Her books are available in six languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. Angela is also the co-founder of the popular site Writers Helping Writers, as well as One Stop for Writers, an innovative online library built to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Take it away Angela…
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 14, 2019
Publishing Far and Wide to Sharpen Your Skills, Thicken Your Skin
By Alythia Brown Part of The Writer’s Life Series
JH: Being a writer encompasses many forms, and not all of them include fiction. Please welcome Alythia Brown back to the lecture hall to share her story about how a wider career path improved her writing--and saved her sanity.
Alythia Brown, repped by BookEnds LLC., is the author of an indie press book you’ve never ever heard of and she wouldn’t even want you to read now. In collaboration with her group of beta readers, she will soon launch ebooks through www.betabaybooks.com. Her skills include naming the neighborhood cats and drawing doodles of chickens to help writers remember grammar tricks.
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Grammar Chicken
Take it away Alythia...Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
February 13, 2019
An Easy Tip for Getting Unstuck in a Scene
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy When you get stuck on a scene, you might just need a little push to get you started again.
Last week, I got stuck with a scene. It wasn’t writers block, and I knew what I wanted to write, I just couldn’t get started. I kept looking at the scene and the words didn’t want to come, even though I could picture it in my head.
After quite a few false starts and a lot of deleted paragraphs, I stepped back and tried something I’d never done before.
I broke my scene summary down into smaller tasks and wrote them one task at a time.
Simple as this sounds, it gave me a clear situation to write and I was able ignore everything else in the scene until I was ready for it.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com
