I rarely make it all the way through writing a blog post. I’m in the zone, spilling my secrets, loving it, enjoying it, reveling in it — and then suddenly, I hit the wall. Or rather, I hit the question: Why would anyone be interested in this? As soon as that question pops up inContinue reading “Social Media Anxiety”
Tag Archives: novel
Back to Square One
A few months into querying BEYOND THE CALL OF BEAUTY — my beautician-turned-sleuth mystery MS — I could tell it wasn’t going to work out. I didn’t fully believe or accept it at the time, but deep-down I knew that I wouldn’t win over a literary agent with it, I wouldn’t tempt a publishing house, andContinue reading “Back to Square One”
The Other Side of Rejection
Being on the receiving end of rejection sucks. It really, really sucks. I’m a wannabe novelist and I’ve had my mystery MS — my baby, my pride and joy, my masterpiece — rejected by over sixty agencies and countless more competition judges. I’ve been overlooked in Twitter contests. I barely scraped through the Pitch Wars agent round.Continue reading “The Other Side of Rejection”
2015 — The Year I Failed
2015 will for ever be the year I tried — and failed — to get a literary agent. 2015 was a year of failure. It’s hard to write that. Not because I’m sad and it hurts, but because I generally like to be optimistic. Upbeat. I went into 2015 with a polished manuscript and a shinyContinue reading “2015 — The Year I Failed”
The First Rejection
What was your first ever rejection? I can remember mine perfectly. I won’t say it’s etched into my memory, because that would be a lie. It doesn’t dwell in my mind or my brain. It was cut into the soft, unsuspecting flesh of my heart. When I reach inside for the moment, I feel the jaggedContinue reading “The First Rejection”
Said, Said Quietly, Whispered – Know Your Dialogue Tags
Pick up any novel from your bookshelf and flick through it. What do you see on the pages? Indentations; gaps; short, sharp sentences; one-word responses; speech marks. Dialogue. Books aren’t just 300 pages of description and storytelling – they’re built on conversation. A single scene of dialogue between characters can achieve almost anything. It can show usContinue reading “Said, Said Quietly, Whispered – Know Your Dialogue Tags”
Character Description: Beyond Stick Figures
Novels are made up of three main elements: plot, character, and action. The plot or storyline of a work is shown through the action taken by the characters. Try to imagine Harry Potter without the wizards, or Lord of the Flies without the school kids. Nothing would happen. Characters are important – and unless you’re working on some kind ofContinue reading “Character Description: Beyond Stick Figures”
Filtering Out Filter Words
I’m currently trudging through the first draft of my second novel, an experience made horribly stressful by my self-imposed one-month deadline. (Just over two weeks to go! Eek!) I’m already way behind schedule after spending the first four days completely ignoring all the advice I gave myself in my previous post on first drafts, but I’veContinue reading “Filtering Out Filter Words”
How to Write a Killer First Draft
In a month’s time, I’ll have written my second novel. Well, hopefully. For some stupid, ridiculous, reckless reason I’ve ordered myself to write a whole book in four weeks, as a kind of unofficial NaNoWriMo. Now, that’s not like me. I’m a plotter, a planner, a stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of writer. I spend days fretting over chapter titles.Continue reading “How to Write a Killer First Draft”
The #1 Rule of Writing: Show, Don’t Tell
If you’ve read my previous post on 15 Ways to Improve Your Writing, you might remember what came in at number 2 on the list: yep, that infernal phrase of the writing community, ‘show, don’t tell’. If you haven’t heard this phrase before, you’re about to get sick of it – and if you have,Continue reading “The #1 Rule of Writing: Show, Don’t Tell”
Lucy Goacher 