In 2009, I left my job as a high school English teacher and ran right smack dab into the Great Recession. It hurt. Nobody was hiring. I couldn’t get an interview, much less a job. After a few months of false starts and throwing myself at the wall, I harnessed what was left of my entrepreneurial spirit and started a wedding videography business. Wedding videography was something I had done…
Calling Debut Authors! Now Accepting Applications for the 2018 Debutante Ball! Read this post to learn more. Hurry! THE DEADLINE IS JULY 28! The paperback edition of SMALL ADMISSIONS releases today, and I have been thinking a lot about what I’ve learned as a writer this year. Like, how have I grown and improved? In particular, I’ve been giving the art of dialogue a lot of thought, asking myself, “How…
CAST OF CHARACTERS Scott: An accountant. Hair parted neatly to one side, slightly awkward, mid-thirties, three-piece suit. Anne: A writer. Early fifties, wearing cute jeans and a jacket, an expensive but worn handbag. Her roots need attention. Scott sits at a desk in his generic office. Anne knocks on the door. Anne: Hello? Scott: Hi, Anne? Nice to meet you. Come in, please. Anne: Thanks for seeing me. …
Best books ever? This is going to be so easy! The Art of the Deal The Bible Just kidding No, I definitely do NOT find this easy. Who came up with such a terrible blog topic? I did? Well, shit. There are so many books I love – and for so many different reasons – I’m going to need categories. (We’re supposed to list five books here, but math was really never…
In his book, Save the Cat!, Author and screenwriter Blake Snyder advised all writers to give every character “a limp and an eyepatch” – an easily identifiable characteristic that sets the character apart from all the others in the scene. I love this advice, and take it to heart – and I use it with dialogue too. When creating characters, I write a journal entry in each character’s voice –…
Ever writer has her strengths. Some are masters of plot, crafting storylines so tight and complex that readers cannot possibly guess what is coming next. Others excel at writing sentences so beautiful, they force you to put the book down for a moment and swim in those words for a few seconds longer. As for me? My strength — or at least the part of writing I enjoy most —…
Since my lovely sister Debs have already covered the subject of dialogue in books so thoroughly this week, I thought I’d talk a bit about a different kind — the dialogue between author and reader. Now more than ever, writers can freely interact, via various forms of social media, with their readers and potential readers. Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, personal blogs, and, yes, group blogs like this very one, all provide…
Let me start by saying I love writing dialogue. I’ve been told I’m good at it and have a good ear, so let’s just go with that and assume it’s true. But when I stop to think about writing dialogue and what it takes, I’m kind of stumped. I mean, it’s a great topic for us writers to talk about (ha ha – talk about!), because there aren’t many books…
