Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 54
February 13, 2017
Check In #5 WWF
We hope that you’ve been finding success, that you’ve been meeting your goals and feeling creative. But even if you haven’t been as productive as you would like, we’re here to cheer, console, and encourage you.
Leave us a comment and let us know how it’s going. If you’re on target with your goals/points, be sure to include:
I MADE MY GOAL
in ALL CAPS at the top of your comment, and we’ll enter you for a...
February 12, 2017
The Words I Can’t Stop Saying
Apparently, I have a problem. Actually, it’s really more of an addiction. A sickness, technically. So what’s a girl to do when she obviously needs an intervention? Clearly, it’s time to whip out her trusty friend “Find” and figure out how to replace those pesky crutch words.
Crutch words.
We all have them. (Or at least I certainly do.) Those little add-ons that sneak into your writing and clutter up the prose without adding impact or purpose. And as much as I love my “actuallys” (I say th...
February 9, 2017
What I’ve Learned About Book Bub
Book Bub (BB) is a subscription service, which offers daily e-mails recommending free and discounted e-books to readers. Recently I was fortunate (after three rejections for my YA books) to have my Scottish Historical book featured on BB. With the feature coming up, I took the free RWA Webinar given by Carolyn Robertson of BB. Here is what I learned from her and from experiencing my first Feature Deal as a fairly unknown author. Please note that if I got anything wrong from the seminar, it is...
February 7, 2017
Write On 2017! – Money, Money
WARNING: Today’s topic in our Write On 2017! series is NOT sexy. My apologies in advance. But here’s a cute weimaraner puppy for your viewing pleasure.
In this series we’re exploring ways to keep you on course and on fire about your writing, stuff like missions and visions and goals that fuel our writerly souls. Today is all about spreadsheets.
If you’re serious about the craft and business of writing, you need to invest in yourself and your products. And if you’re earning revenue, you must k...
February 6, 2017
Check In #4 for the 2017 Winter Writing Festival
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Yay! We’ve been writing our heart’s out the past 4 weeks in the Winter Writing Festiva...February 5, 2017
Is Short The New Long?
Writing a great short story used to be the training ground for writers. Hemingway started his career by writing them, as did Stephen King, and many renown others.
For many years, the appetite for short stories, nearly disappeared, cutting the number of magazines that included them substantially, and leaving only classic short stories on the book shelves. However, I believe the tide is changing among today’s readers. Their time is limited and there are times when they just want something wort...
February 2, 2017
Five Playlists to Keep You Focused and Productive
The world is a distracting place right now, isn’t it? What with all the jumping and running and biting and scampering across keyboards, I can hardly focus!!
I’m speaking, of course, of Captain Salty.
Captain Salty!
We have long fostered animals for our local pet shelters. Bunnies, chinchillas, turtles, guinea pigs, and dogs, we’ve done it all, but we mostly focus on kittens. Tough job, right?
Well, let me tell you: they make terrible co-workers. But I’m a glutton for punishment, and thus I ha...
February 1, 2017
Share a Snippet, ROUND TWO!
Tomorrow we hit the HALFWAY POINT of the 2017 Winter Writing Festival (Day 25 out of 50!!), and once again I’m eager to see a little more of the WORDS everybody’s been writing since we started. Our first round of Sharing Snippets was really fun….so let’s all be brave again today and SHARE SHARE SHARE. In one of the comment boxes below, post a paragraph (or a few) or even just a favorite line that you’ve written sometime within the last few weeks.
Jump right in!!January 31, 2017
Write On 2017! – Goal Setting
Today we’re getting to the heart of any writing plan: Goals. Goals drive us, inspire us, frustrate us, but ultimately transform us from dreamers into doers.
If you’ve joined us for the past three Wednesdays for the Ruby’s Write On 2017! series, you developed an inspiring mission, created a forward-focused vision, and took a candid look at your strengths and weaknesses. You are now ready for the serious and empowering work of goal setting.
Up first, SMART Goals. These are Specific, Measurable...
January 30, 2017
Check In #3 for the 2017 Winter Writing Festival
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Yay! We’ve been writing our heart’s out the past 3 weeks in the Winter Writing Festiva...
