Liesl Shurtliff's Blog, page 2
October 11, 2012
The Class of 2k13 is LIVE!
Today is the day! It's 10/11/12 and The Class of 2k13 is up and running! The Class of 2k13 a group of 20 YA and MG authors debuting in 2013.There are books for EVERYONE!
Come check out our website and blog and Twitter and FB and enter to win awesome prizes including a $50 B&N Gift Card!
I'm posting the Rafflecopter giveaway so you can just enter here as well. It all goes to the same place! a Rafflecopter giveaway
Come check out our website and blog and Twitter and FB and enter to win awesome prizes including a $50 B&N Gift Card!
I'm posting the Rafflecopter giveaway so you can just enter here as well. It all goes to the same place! a Rafflecopter giveaway
October 2, 2012
Writing Space(s)
Lately I've seen a lot of other writers sharing their writings desks, offices, and creative spaces. These pictures of clean desks and creatively bookish decor have made me feel a little jealous, inferior, and altogether unimaginative. I keep thinking I should really clean my office space, maybe add some creative decor, take a few pictures and show how my writing space translates into my super amazing creativity.
And then I thought, forget it. Let's get real here. These are my true writi...
And then I thought, forget it. Let's get real here. These are my true writi...
September 20, 2012
Introducing Writer Therapy
Need a pep talk? Camaraderie? A good laugh about the writing life? Then Writer Therapy is for you. The first two webisodes went live today and seriously...hilarious. 
September 18, 2012
Getting Started Series: Getting Over Perfection
"The first draft of anything is shit."
-Ernest Hemingway
So you have this idea. It's really sparkly in your brain. You think you should write a novel about it. You think it might be a bestseller, or at least worthy of publication and praise. So you write it down. And...
IT TOTALLY SUCKS!
Yes, it's been known to happy. For some reason or another those sparkly ideas in our brains somehow get muddled on the way down our arm and out our fingertips, and when they land on the page it seems miraculous...
-Ernest Hemingway
So you have this idea. It's really sparkly in your brain. You think you should write a novel about it. You think it might be a bestseller, or at least worthy of publication and praise. So you write it down. And...
IT TOTALLY SUCKS!
Yes, it's been known to happy. For some reason or another those sparkly ideas in our brains somehow get muddled on the way down our arm and out our fingertips, and when they land on the page it seems miraculous...
September 11, 2012
Remembering
It didn't seem right, on this day, to blather about writing and publishing, but I also didn't want to say nothing. So I just want to remember where I was ten years ago.
I was in college, my sophomore year. I remember walking through the business building, which has screens everywhere that are always on CNN. I saw the red banner "America Under Attack," and some footage of smoke rising from a building. I wondered if it was some kind of spoof. Seriously, I thought, "I'm in America. I'm standing r...
I was in college, my sophomore year. I remember walking through the business building, which has screens everywhere that are always on CNN. I saw the red banner "America Under Attack," and some footage of smoke rising from a building. I wondered if it was some kind of spoof. Seriously, I thought, "I'm in America. I'm standing r...
September 4, 2012
Getting Started Series: Writing Education
Whether you’ve been writing all your life or are just getting started, it’s imperative for you to learn some of the tricks of the trade. I believe many writers do hold some amount of natural talent for words and stories, but even the most naturally talented writers must hone their craft. There are certain pitfalls to avoid, and certain principles and techniques that have been passed down from great writers for generations, and certain styles and techniques that worked a hundred years ago tha...
August 28, 2012
Getting Started Series: Writing Time
"The Hardest Part is Getting Started."
-attributed to Stephen King, but basically every author in the world.
A reader recently asked me several questions about how I got started and how I got where I am today, with a finished manuscript, an agent, and a publisher. This blog is partly my own ramblings about my writing journey, but it's also meant to be a helpful resource to those who love to write and want to share their writing with others, perhaps through traditional publishing.
As I started w...
-attributed to Stephen King, but basically every author in the world.
A reader recently asked me several questions about how I got started and how I got where I am today, with a finished manuscript, an agent, and a publisher. This blog is partly my own ramblings about my writing journey, but it's also meant to be a helpful resource to those who love to write and want to share their writing with others, perhaps through traditional publishing.
As I started w...
August 21, 2012
Every Story a New Challenge
I used to have this idea that writing would get easier, that somehow, each subsequent novel would flow a little faster, and I'd know exactly what to do. Imagine my disappointment when that fantasy got demolished.
I'm drafting a new novel, my fifth to date, and while I have no doubt that my writing has improved a great deal since my first attempts, the process, apparently, does get any easier. In fact, in some ways it's more frustrating, if only because I feel it should be easier, and also beca...
I'm drafting a new novel, my fifth to date, and while I have no doubt that my writing has improved a great deal since my first attempts, the process, apparently, does get any easier. In fact, in some ways it's more frustrating, if only because I feel it should be easier, and also beca...
August 14, 2012
How to Create Memorable Characters
Few things will make me put a book down faster than blah characters. Even if there’s a great concept, lots of action, mystery, steamy romance, etc., if I’m not interested in the characters then I’m not interested in what’s going to happen to them.
So what makes a memorable character? How can you make them come to life from the very first page, and how can you make a reader care what will happen to them? This is nothing that can be totally covered in one blog post, but I'd like to discuss a f...
July 31, 2012
And The Winner Is...
Jess Keating!
Hooray! Jess, I'll email you and mail RUMP asap!
And stay tuned so we can talk about more fun stuff like characterization and exposition and alliteration. Don't those words just give you a thrill?
