June Shaw's Blog, page 13

Creating Novel Characters

by Jean Henry Mead

Some of us are tempted to create characters based on people we know. And that's fine as long as you don’t describe them accurately. Your relatives probably won’t sue if they discover themselves in your books, but others might.

To successfully sue, a plaintiff must prove that your fictional character is negatively based on her, and has injured her emotionally, financially or socially. It’s safer to write about a public figure or someone deceased, although their relatives can...

Forgot the Link -- Here it is

By June Shaw

Being a grandmother means... well, sometimes I forget something. In this case I forgot to add a link for people who might want to learn more about the book I wrote with my granddaughters  -- or possibly order it. They'd love you forever for doing that.

On Amazon JUST ONE FRIEND is here: http://amzn.to/1MfVGr7

Writing with Your Grandkids

by June Shaw

"We'd like to write a book with you," my two teen granddaughters told me.

"Do y'all just want money, or do you really want to write a book?"

"No, it would be fun to write a book. That's what we'd like to do."

Hmm, they were fourteen and sixteen and both avid readers, although the older sister had gotten much more involved in extra-curricular activities. We thought about what we might write. They both really enjoyed The Hunger Games. So did I, so we decided we would create that type n...

Truth or Consequences

Telling the Truth Is HardEven When You’re Making It Up As You GoI’m a private person. A friend says it’s because I’m a Pisces. I think it’s because I was always in trouble as a kid for saying things that annoyed grownups. So I learned to hide my true thoughts and said what others wanted to hear. It was neither interesting nor fun, but I got pretty good at it. That skill worked well for getting along with adults and later on, bosses and coworkers. But when I started writing, this acquired faça...

The strange effects of prompts by Bill Kirton

Back in January, I wrote a blog about the usefulness of prompts to get a story going. On that occasion it was a picture prompt for The Word Count Podcast. This time, it’s another Word Count podcast but the prompt was simply three words – Glass, Bed, Bow – and it teased some very different stories from nine writers. The words themselves aren’t particularly evocative, either individually or as a group. Nonetheless, when I started thinking how I might approach the task, the idea of a fairy story...

Series Writing

by Jean Henry Mead

Writing a series can be an asset as well as a hindrance. An asset because your readers look forward to each new novel and your continuing characters. But you can become bored with your character(s) as Agatha Christie did with Hercule Poirot. In fact, she came to hate the arrogant little detective. 

My protagonists have become old friends that I enjoy tuning into each day to listen in on their conversations, no matter how scatterbrained they happen to be. But I've...

20 years later...

by Carola

My first mystery just reissued after 20 years (and 21 more in the series). Read an excerpt here http://historicalfictionexcerpts.blogspot.com/2015/03/death-at-wentwater-court-reissued.html

Three of My Writing Rules

More Writing Tips--some redundant.


by Jackie King
Rule 1: Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated. Books are written one word at a time, one sentence at a time, and one paragraph at a time. Each day remind yourself that all you have to do is write one sentence, and then one more, and then one more…
Rule 2: Give yourself permission to write a bad first draft. This removes the fear of failure. You can’t fail because it’s okay to write sucky pages. What’s hard is putting your heart on paper. Don’t l...

Mind the gap by Bill Kirton

Last year I was one of the adjudicators at the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference in Cumbernauld. I spent time with old friends, made some new ones, learned more things about writing and generally had a great time with plenty of laughs. Despite the fact that perhaps most of those present had submitted entries for the various writing categories and were, therefore, in competition with one another, winners were greeted warmly and there were no negative notes or anything other than frie...

How Now Purple Cow

A guest blog by Marja McGraw

It seems that something unexpected usually inspires a story for me. I won’t go into titles, for the most part, in the interest of space.
In my Sandi Webster series, stories were inspired by (get this) the Red Light District in Old Los Angeles, something that actually happened to me in another book, meeting an elderly female private investigator, a photo of a vintage, abandoned house in Nevada, and an admiration for Humphrey Bogart. Another was inspired by what used...