Courtney Wendleton's Blog, page 16
January 22, 2017
How To Give Your Writing All-Around More A-peel
by Destine Williams
Hey, everybody, Destine here from The Zen Zone. Don’t shoot me for the pun. There’s a good reason for it I swear!
Maybe you’ve run into the problem of your settings feeling a little too thin, or characters feeling too cardboardy. But at the same time you don’t want to make huge lists and sheets of things to make something unique.
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January 21, 2017
#Burned
Currently Reading: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and A Storm of Swords (Song of Fire and Ice book 3) by George R.R. Martin
Books Read: 10
TBR List: 4999
Words Written:
Well the new year is off to a good start writing and reading wise. I haven’t made many new posts on here though. I also haven’t written anything more on Finding Family. So I’m feeling a bit bad on the resolutions I made.
I’m also beginning to feel burned out with my writing again. I don’t know if it is I’ve just been putting too much into this one story I’ve started, my meds have stopped working or what but I’m having issues continuing writing for the past couple of days.
Upside though, I have two books very close to publishing. I think that is a good start to the year. More than last year.
I have picked out the book I’m going to work on for Camp NaNoWriMo in April. I would just like a better title for it, but I kind of love the title I have picked out at the same time.
January 19, 2017
The Sweat and Tears in Writing
by Jordan Jolley
If you devote time for the quality of your story, then your book’s potential can go far.
There are two very common questions people ask me: “How long did it take you to write your first book?” and “Are you done with your second book?”
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January 17, 2017
5 Mistakes Authors Make on Social Media
by Michael Cristiano
I thought writing a novel was the hard part. I thought endless drafting and editing and proofreading involved the most work when it came to being a writer.
I was wrong. My debut novel has been on sale for a little less than a month, and I came to the conclusion very early on in its release that writing it was the easy (and far more enjoyable) part. Why? you ask.
Marketing. Marketing is a hard and seemingly endless process. Why is it so hard?
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2 Tips For Introducing Your Protagonist
by Kathryn
What’s wrong with this picture?
‘I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, find my big green eyes crusted with sleep. I brush my beautiful brown hair and check my flawless skin for pimples, but of course I don’t have any, so I don’t need to put on any makeup. Then I walk over to my closet and put on my school uniform shirt and skirt, check my reflection one more time. Then I head down stairs for a delicious, filling breakfast.’
Obviously that paragraph is insipid to the point of hyperbolic, but it’s not like writing like this doesn’t exist.
Remember learning the concept of “show, not tell” back in elementary school?
Yes, it’s still (and always) super relevant.
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January 15, 2017
Owning Your Writing Craft
by Tonya R. Moore
There’s all this hubbub floating around out there lately, conflicting theories of all the DOs and DON’Ts of what it takes to be or become a successful author.
Some time ago, I saw some Perpetual Writing Advice Giver actually tweet that if you’re a writer promoting your work and you don’t have this many (double digit) thousand followers on Twitter, you’re simply not trying hard enough. To add insult to offense, said party didn’t even have a half of that “strongly suggested” following.
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How to Handle Rejection
by Tonya R. Moore
Rejection bites. That’s the plain and simple truth.
You pour your heart into a story and revise the heck out of it. Then you submit/query and repeat until hopefully, someone finally thinks that you have something worth publishing.
Unless you’re some sort of literary genius whose work always gets accepted on the very first submission, it can become quite a discouraging process.
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January 13, 2017
Why Do We Care When Characters Die?
by Kyle Massa
Did you cry when Bambi’s mom got shot?
It’s okay. You can admit it. Though we know they’re not real, the death of fictional characters evokes real emotion in us. I find that amazing. After all, when fictional character die, we’re essentially mourning the loss of someone who does not, has not, and never will, exist.
The question is: why? Why do we care when a nonexistent character bites the dust?
I don’t claim to know the answer. But I do have some theories.
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January 12, 2017
How to Keep Your Readers From Asking, “Why Didn’t They Just…?”
by Stephanie O’Brien
My siblings and I have sometimes joked that we could take over several fictional universes with the power of “Why didn’t they just…?”
When characters fail to use an obvious solution, or forget a skill or superpower that could easily resolve the situation, it can be pretty frustrating for the readers.
It can also hurt their opinion of the characters’ intelligence, or of your attention to detail, even if the story is otherwise awesome.
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20 Ways to Get Yourself Out There as a Writer
by Kelly D. Smith
1. Get out there! Meet people, and don’t be scared to say you are a writer.
2. Blog- now, is blogging really worth it? I’m not sure, I’m actually going to be talking about that soon but I enjoy it!
3. Guest blog, because really if you’re going to do it why not start with someone else’s hard work?!
4. Make sure you have your books on your blog, website, Facebook, and anywhere else!
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