Zoe M. McCarthy's Blog, page 10
November 1, 2018
It’s Never Too Late to Write a Novel
My guest today, Joanie Walker, gives hope to those who have always wanted to capture their life adventures into a novel. Joanie’s writing journey is a good representation of what writing hopefuls need to do to be successful. Read more about her novel, Drafted to Deceive, at the end of her post. A late-blooming writer confesses all … […]
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October 25, 2018
Book Deadlines—Do or Die
Deadlines are good. They help writers focus on completing book-writing tasks. Sometimes deadlines aren’t so good. Writers may carefully plan how they’re going to meet deadlines, padding their schedules for unexpected events. Then they discover the padding wasn’t enough and they’re in a pickle. Unexpected Events for John Writer • Others experience their own unanticipated […]
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October 18, 2018
Find Worthy Rewards for Meeting Manuscript Word-Count Goals
I’d never used word-count goals in writing, until my current manuscript. To complete my story by my deadline, I need to write a certain number of words per week. For the past month, what has helped me make my goal each week is a reward. I heed two rules concerning rewards. Reward Rules 1. I don’t […]
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October 11, 2018
Use Places You’ve Lived to Enhance Your Story
You don’t need to use the actual place, but you could use the memories: • something you saw (good or bad) • a specific feeling you had (exhilaration, fear, sadness) • a general feeling you had (ominous, out of place, homey) • a person you met (friend, enemy, boyfriend) • a particular setting within the […]
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October 4, 2018
Choosing Your Story Characters’ Names – a Help and a Website.
A mix of older and newer names will make your story feel authentic to readers. You can give characters names popular to the year or decade they were born in. Most likely characters will have popular names from prior decades too. Boys often carry on family names. Below are the top twelve U.S. names for […]
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September 27, 2018
Watch for the Word Some in Your Story
In my readings, I’ve noticed many unnecessary occurrences of the word some. I have to ferret out that sneaky word from my drafts. But I don’t delete all of them. Sometimes some is the correct word. Where the word some works. Example > “Did you read all of the book?” “I read some of it.” Although some […]
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September 20, 2018
A Book Promotion Idea Costing Less Than $20
One of the best things I do for under $20 is buy Kindle gift e-books for my titles when they’re on sale for 99¢. I have them sent to my email address, then, as I need them, I forward them to readers. The readers click on the gift link and download the book. Here […]
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September 13, 2018
Less Common Interview Questions for Blog Author Interviews
For The Putting Green Whisperer releasing tomorrow, I had a stack of interviews for which I answered bloggers’ questions. At first, I liked the common questions, but was ashamed at the reason. I could copy those answers from other interviews and get the interview job done. After I’d worked on answering a few unusual questions, […]
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September 6, 2018
Tips for Cleaning Up Your Manuscript for a Hired Editor
I’m not talking about formatting. I’m talking about making your manuscript a pleasure for your editor to work on. There’s benefits for you too. Benefits of Clean-as-Possible Manuscripts Cleaning up grammar and smaller problems, allows your editor to concentrate on structure and story problems. Of course, this depends on the type of edit you purchase: Developmental, […]
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August 30, 2018
Writing Character Interviews for Promotions
My guest today is Zoe M. McCarthy (okay, me). Zoe discusses character interviews. Then she interviews the hero and heroine from her book, The Putting Green Whisperer, releasing September 14, 2018. She’s pleased to share that her publisher has a one-time-only 99¢ pre-order special for the Kindle version. The special disappears on the release date. See […]
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