Author Kaye Manro had a good post at her blog last week about opening lines in novels. As authors we're told first lines are important, and we should work at making them perfect. While I go along with this advice and try to make my first line intriguing, it made me...
I saw this ad on TV the other day. It's from my favorite New Zealand store, Whitcoulls, and it made me laugh because this name problem has been me for the last three weeks. Today, I sat down and toughed it out, choosing names in much the way this couple did. In fact,...
Michael Hyatt, the president and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers has an interesting blog post about websites. He ran several author websites through WebsiteGrader to see how their websites performed. I scored an 84, which shows room for improvement. I lost marks for...
I hope my Monday isn't indicative of the week to come because I didn't enjoy it. Nothing really bad happened, just lots of little things that on their own would have been okay, but together made me grumpy. I'm going to have a late night trying to get my word total...
Here's a question for all you writers out there - both aspiring and published. How do you keep track of a character's physical attributes, their quirks and baggage? Their family history? I'm forever forgetting what color eyes I've given my characters and little things...
A good romance needs conflict to make it memorable. Our characters need motivation and goals, otherwise why are we bothering? For a beginner writer, conflict is often a difficult thing to grasp. It's more than mere bickering. The turning point for me came when I read...
Thirteen Plus Classic Romance Plots The secret of writing a great romance is to take a classic plot and twist it to make the story unique. Here is a list of the classic plot tropes used in romances: 1. Secret Baby - a pregnancy results from a romance and the father...
Writing a book is like dating. There’s the first excitement of the new idea where you wonder what to wear, how to approach the shiny new relationship. It goes well and there’s a second date. The liaison seems full of promise but suddenly the guy doesn’t ring… What on...
Playing to Win, the very first book I wrote is a romantic suspense. I’ve written many different genres since then, but one thing remains true. I love to add a suspense element and if I can sprinkle the odd body or two between the pages, so much the better. Although a...
