Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 12
November 3, 2019
Happy Mentor Monday!
It’s that time of the month again…no, not that one! This one!
Mentor Monday!
Today is the day for questions! Like what do you do when you get struck in a scene? How long should you keep an agent not selling your work? How do I make my heroine more likable? Who is buying young adult fantasy? Why can’t I seem to get motivated?
Craft, industry, self-care….anything goes 
October 31, 2019
FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: Family Ties
Since today is the first day of November, and family plays such a big role this month, I thought I’d focus on that very thing. For today’s assignment, begin your story with the line, My family was only missing one thing:
October 29, 2019
Goals: Do You NaNo?
It’s the end of the month, which means it’s time to talk goals moving into November! And as many writers know, November is NaNo Month.
One of the questions you get asked a lot as a writer is how you do it. How do you finish the book, how do you get published, how do you find people to read your stuff who aren’t biologically related to you… And one of my standard answers to question number one (how do you finish) is that you just do it. But I’ve found the best way to do that–to keep my momentum g...
October 28, 2019
Brainstorming the Gates
It’s that time again. The last Monday of the month when we devote the blog to brainstorming.
Here’s your opportunity to ask other writers to help you fix a problem with your character’s arc, the plot of the story, or any other matter relating to the your current work in progress.
Here’s how the brainstorming works:
If you have a problem, question, or just need help on something, post your issue in a comment. Blog readers, this is where you come in. If you have any helpful advice to provide, post it as a reply to the original poster’...October 24, 2019
FLASH FICTION FRIDAY-SCAREFEST!
I thought we’d continue in the “spirit” (get it?) of Halloween and write our stories based on something, ANYTHING, scary. Ghosts, a haunted house, vampires, zombies, werewolves, broken dolls, scary children, clowns…wherever your imagination takes you. There’s just one catch: Your story must be 6 words or fewer! I know, I know. I’m cruel. But this is super fun and a great exercise. Here are some examples by...
October 22, 2019
Wordsmith Wednesday: Strong Opening Paragraphs
Welcome to Wordsmith Wednesday: Strong Opening Paragraphs!
In this monthly feature, we’ll analyze strong opening paragraphs by looking at examples from both published books and unpublished manuscripts.
In last month’s column, I invited members of our Ruby community to submit their own Opening Paragraphs for kudos and feedback.
Our first volunteer is Kylie!
If you remember from my previous “Strong Opening Paragraphs” blog post, my approach to assessing opening paragraphs is to ORIENT THE READER, QUICKLY, by providing the followi...
October 20, 2019
Tips & Tricks of the Trade
Welcome to our first Tips & Tricks of the Trade! (We missed it last month due to technical difficulties.) I’m not going to spend any time explaining this feature because it seems pretty self-explanatory. But I will say that I think it should go like this . . . I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Deal?
By the way, these posts might be about anything writing-related in any given month, and this month we’re going to discuss ways to stay focused long enough to actually write–because I k...
October 17, 2019
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!
October 16, 2019
Throwback Thursday: I Knew Nothing, Jon Snow
Welcome to Throwback Thursdays, the day when we look back. Sometimes this may mean laughing over old covers or sharing books that STILL make us sigh twenty years later. On some Thursdays we may repost old blogs that have (or haven’t) aged well as the industry changed around us, but today I’m taking a stroll down memory lane to talk about my very first release and all the things I didn’t know that I didn’t know.
My first release came out in 2009. It was digital-first. It was paranormal-rom-com....
October 15, 2019
Wordsmith Wednesdays: Elevator Pitches
Writers are in the business of turning words into stories. And for novelists–whose jobs require that we produce lots and lots of words–being forced to restrict our words can be terrifying.
Nothing says word restriction like the elevator pitch.
So what exactly is an elevator pitch? A basic definition is: a one-sentence description of a product I want to sell. The goal is to say the words in the 30 seconds it takes to travel one floor in an elevator. 25 words or less. Fast and succinct!
The pi...
