Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 162

Swag-alicious, I Am Not

This is my first real post for 7 Criminal Minds, if you don't count my introductory hello last time. And, as fate would have it, the first question is one I am doomed to fail at.

Swag. What do you do for swag, what works, how much do you spend....blech. I am going to fall flat on my face here, folks.

Actually, marketing in general is my weak point. You know how for some writers, it's dialogue, or description, or plotting, or whatever? Well, mine is probably scene description [Beyond a general d...

Party Time

Q: Swag: what do you do about this knotty question? Have you wasted money in the past? What works best for you, and why? Do you have an annual budget?-from SusanI concentrate on being generous at my book launch events. For that, I go all out. They’re really parties. The launch for the first book in 2010 was an out-and-out party held at the SF avant garde art gallery, 111 Minna. Made sense because the book was MURDER IN THE ABSTRACT, about crime in the contemporary art world. Fo...

Writer's Guilt...It's a thing

by Abir
Writers sit and write – for a long time. What do you do to stop yourself becoming welded to your writing seat?
I’m not sure this is true. Most writers I know face a constant battle to make time for writing, what with the competing calls of a full-time or part-time job, family time and other commitments. Added to these, being on the treadmill of producing a book a year, which many publishers expect these days, can be a lot of pressure.
In fact, often the last thing I want to do after a fu...

Lashed to the Mast

Writers sit and write – for a long time. What do you do to stop yourself becoming welded to your writing seat?

From Jim

I become antsy when I’m writing. At least until I settle into a groove and my mind gets onboard for the work. Then I write in bursts of an hour or so. I make bargains with myself. Write a thousand words and you can take a coffee break. Or check your e-mail. Or go on a FaceBook jag. On good days I’ll have three or four of those bursts and achieve a good word count. But other da...

A balancing act

Writers sit and write – for a long time. What do you do to stop yourself becoming welded to your writing seat?
by Dietrich
At times it’s more a question of how can I keep myself welded to the chair. Distractions come in many forms, furry friends who want attention or food, ringing phones, questions that can’t wait, noises from outside, all that real-life stuff. And sometimes it’s the temptation of a little social media when I’m writing, and I feel like coming up for a little air. Next thing, a...

Give Me a Break!

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No Grass Growing Here by Brenda Chapman

Question: Writers sit and write – for a long time. What do you do to stop yourself becoming welded to your writing seat?

I actually have the opposite problem -- how to tether myself to the chair for long stretches of time.


When I worked in a government office, I often had no reason to get out of my chair, but I knew that I should get up every hour to get the blood flowing. Studies have shown that sitting too long is bad for one's health. Think of blood clots from sitting for eight hours st...

Location, Location, Location

When it comes to creating a sense of place in your work, how do you do it? (Research and real places? Invention and fictional ones?) What’s worked for you, and what hasn’t? 

by Paul D. Marks

This one’s going to be on the long side. Mostly because I’m using several excerpts from stories or novels and I’m focusing only on things set in L.A. or Southern California here.

There’s no end to the ways one can do research in terms of creating a sense of place. I tend to set a lot of what I write in...

Of Castles and Kludgies

CRAFT: When it comes to creating a sense of place in your work, how do you do it? (Research and real places? Invention and fictional ones?) What’s worked for you, and what hasn’t?By CatrionaA sense of place - like California where I live or like Maryland where I am now after a long flight yesterday that sent this blog out of my head like thistledown? Sorry it's so late. Here goes:I think I've covered all bases: a completely imaginary town - Drumlaw (Geddit (no one did at the time)), in Come T...

Wish you were here? by Cathy Ace

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