Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 13

So Long My Friends

Have you found any hints or shortcuts to speed up your writing process? Energize your creativity? Minimize distractions? Do tell.

Brenda here for my final post!

Before I tackle this week's question, a note to say that this ends my run on 7 Criminal Minds. I began blogging five, six, ten? years ago and feel it's time to pass the torch on to a fresh voice. I've enjoyed sharing my thoughts alongside a stellar cast of authors, and will continue to follow their posts from the sidelines.

To my fellow Min...

Festival Finance by Poppy Gee

What do your writing expenses look like for a conference? Airfare, hotel, meals, books, booze? What about ROI(return on investment)? Are conferences worth the expense?

Poppy and New Zealand author Vanda Symon became good mates at a festival in the Huon Valley!For rest and relaxation, my husband likes loading up hismotorbike trailer, packing his swag and an esky full of food, and driving fivehours west to camp by a river, beneath gum trees and the stars, usually withour boys and a bunch of fri...

To illustrate my point ... by Catriona

What do your writing expenses look like for a conference? (Percentages are fine.) Airfare, hotel, meals, books, booze? What about ROI (return on investment)? Are conferences worth the expense? 

With the divine Mr M, Bouchercon, Raleigh, 2015

Did everyone read Eric yesterday? About how ungrateful it looks when you're nominated for an award and you don't even bother to show up? Well, I'm nominated for two Anthony awards at this year's Bouchercon and I won't be anywhere near it.

Michael Mueller, Kr...

To go or not to go? by Eric Beetner

 What do your writing expenses look like for a conference? (Percentages are fine.) Airfare, hotel, meals, books, booze? What about ROI (return on investment)? Are conferences worth the expense?

This question comes at a timely moment for me. I had planned not to attend any conferences this year. My finances have been depleted as my day job industry (TV/Film) goes through a major readjustment if not a downright upheaval. So things have been tight around here.

I've had years where I can justify going...

The LOL of ROI, by Gabriel Valjan

 

What do your writing expenses look like fora conference? (Percentages are fine.) Airfare, hotel, meals, books, booze? Whatabout ROI (return on investment)? Are conferences worth the expense?

Let’s just say Icould fly to Europe, or I could go to Bouchercon. 

 

Same price point,wildly different emotional outcomes.

 

Rough breakdown:

X% hotel (writers need sleep, allegedly)
X% travel (planes, trains, Uber, and the privilege of TSA judging your bookmarks)
X% mea...

Money Money Money...

 

What do your writingexpenses look like for a conference? Airfare, hotel, meals, books, booze. Whatabout ROI (return on investment)? Are conferences worth the expense?

 

What a question! And a question that every writerprobably has asked themselves at one point or another during their journey. I saw a post from a fairly well-establishedwriter a while ago struggling with a decision on whether to attend a major upcomingconference. They ultimately decided against because the royalties they e...

Deleting the 'is' and 'was' - possible or impossible? by Harini Nagendra

Look at your last book and count the number of times you used is, are, was, and were. Thoughts? Lessons learned? 

I must confess, the first time I saw today's question, I was very confused - what was wrong with using 'is, are, was and were'? Then I read some more. Many contemporary writing coaches and editors suggest that this entire set of words - all variants of the verb 'to be' - should be, if not deleted from one's writing vocabulary (which is clearly an impossible task), at least minimized. ...

To Be Is the Strongest Verb from James W. Ziskin

This week’s question deals with the verb “to be.” Since we mostly write in the past tense, I’ve decided to concentrate on “was” and “were,” instead of the present “am,” “is,” and “are.”

Dickens opens A TALE OF TWO CITIES with this famous passage: 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hop...

Lurking in the prose

Look at your last book and count the number of times you used is, are, was, and were. Thoughts? Lessons learned?

by Dietrich

Overusing auxiliary verbs weakens the prose, waters the action and makes the story less engaging. The question got me thinking about whether I was guilty of this, so I took a look at the opening for Dirty Little War. It’s a small part of the first chapter (just 564 words), but let’s check it for culprits.

Huck was getting a sinking feeling about the whole set-up, no place fo...

Not "To be"

 

Terry here, with our question of the week: Look at your last book and count the number of times you used is, are, was, and were. Thoughts? Lessons learned? 
 I have belonged to a particular writer’s group for thirty years. Many years ago one of the members brought the use of the word “to be” to our attention. She cautioned that those words—is, are, and were--could be stand-ins for stronger verbs: Instead of “Jim Ziskin IS coming for dinner. Mary IS going to serve soup,” say, “Jim Ziskin promised...