When you’re building the world of your plot, you have to wear many hats. You have to see the future in several different iterations, you have to be a number of different characters, and you have to identify consequences sometimes even before you figure out the actions that will bring them. In short, you’ve got a lot of balls in the air. And now I’m going to set them on fire. When you’re building your world as an author, you also have to think not only in terms of your story, but in terms of your career strategy.

Like it or not, as soon as you put a story out there, people will color their perceptions of you with that story. This can be to your advantage–if you love writing romantic suspenses set on the Maine coast, you have yourself a nice little brand just waiting for you to stamp your fingerprints all over. If you, like me, have a love for stories as varied and wildly different as romantic comedies, dystopian sci-fi, and epic fantasy…you may have a bit more work ahead of you. Oh, and your balls are on fire.

Follow The Leaders

Even in this early renaissance of indie publishing and the opening of doors and the newfound freedoms of authors unchained by a monopolization on distribution by a cartel of select publishers, a pattern of success has already emerged. And it’s a pretty simple one, when you get right down to it. A number of books, priced at the right price point, well-written, and which can be connected, will get you discovered and net you readers and sales. It ain’t rocket science–consistent delivery of product with a consistent level of quality, priced at what the market will bear for it, will net you a degree of commercial success. You can apply it to widgets, cars, umbrellas, and stories. Now, stories are not interchangeable, say, with umbrellas–all umbrellas are meant to be held over one’s head to protect one from the elements. But stories aren’t interchangeable to a specific function like umbrellas are (with the exception of, say, the lace parasol that will not keep you dry in the rain, or the clear vinyl umbrella that will not shade you from a hot sunny day), so naturally, you’ll have a wider range of variables in terms of cost to produce versus profit, audience, consumer expectation, and what constitutes success. But the basic model is there–if you build it, they will come. And if you keep building what they first came for, they’ll keep coming.

But what do you do if you built it, they came, and now you want to build something completely different?

Bad Brander! No Donut!

I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing wrong with that. If your world as an author is bigger than romantic suspense or historical erotica or whatever sub-genres pull your strings, then it is what it is, and sometimes you gotta go with it. But understand that your measures of success will be different, and your journey up the mountain will be off the beaten path. The marketing and social media experts will tell you to build a brand, and the easiest way to do that is around a specific style of story or sub-genre.

But the smart ones will also tell you it’s not “bad branding” to wander further afield than one sub-genre. The smart ones will tell you that if your brand isn’t a sub-genre, then you have to be better and smarter at identifying what, exactly, your brand really is. And for the record, it may not come easy, and you may not be able to do it alone.

You Tease! Two Ways To Coax Your Brand From You

So if you can’t identify your own brand, or if you’re coming up with lame ideas that wouldn’t sell a kid a box of sugary cereal, it’s time for you to think outside that cereal box.

• Ask your friends and family – no one knows you like they do, and chances are, they’ll see things about you that you may not have even considered (and maybe some things you don’t want to consider, LOL)
• Ask your readers, critique partners, betas and editors – They know you best through your writing, but they don’t come with the assumptions you went into your writing career with. Those assumptions may be holdovers from years or decades ago, electric fences hidden in the tall grass that have limited you for so long that you don’t even know they’re still there, fencing you into one point of view.

I write about quirky people finding their own crazy paths to happily ever after. At least, that’s what I’ve come up with so far. My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, is about a Dating Diva who keeps breaking her own rules when it comes to Mr. Wrong and Mr. Right.

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.
 

I recently flipped my schedule around in anticipation for Summer Break. I’m usually one of those people who likes to wind up to work by starting the day off and clearing out a bunch of small, easy to do tasks that make me feel like I’ve accomplished something. After all, success breeds success. So I do things like check email, post a few things on facebook, tweet a few things, and write a blog post if it’s my day for it. All things that should, in theory, take a few minutes each and net me with many successes before I reach the bottom of that first cup of coffee. Only, as we all know, email and facebook and twitter don’t quite work that way, do they?

So I looked at my work habits and wondered why I was giving my best “me” to email and facebook and twitter? All things that could be done at any time of day, or even on the go, via the smartphone. Why was I devoting desk time, and early-morning desk time, too–to these second-priority tasks?

I realized I was still operating on an assumption about myself that has evolved. Prior to kids, I worked a full-time job, so writing time came at night when the day was winding down. When my kids came along, writing time came at odd hours as well–nap times, that low period in the middle of the night when the Fussies are winding down, but you’re good and awake–and eleven-minute stretches (the length of the average TV cartoon episode).

Somewhere along the way my best working time has evolved. Mornings after the kids leave are quiet and I can think in long stretches without worrying why it’s so quiet and if anybody’s setting something on fire. So in essence, I asked myself why I was spending my Best Self time on second-rate tasks? It’s like a light bulb went on–I’d finally asked the Right Question. I set up an experiment for myself–for the next three weeks, the first thing I’m going to do after the kids leave is get my working writing done. No morning appointments, no morning clean-ups of the kitchen or laundry (because honestly, it ain’t going anywhere), and no morning sessions on email or facebook. Because I know where my Best Self needs to go, and it ain’t in facebook posts!

Have your work habits evolved? I bet they have, even if you haven’t noticed. When is your best work time now? Is it the same as it was five years ago? One? Six months ago? If your Best You time has changed, alter your work habits to catch that time and use it!

Writing is how I work from home. I write about quirky people finding their own crazy paths to happily ever after. My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, shows how a Dating Diva learned how to take her own lessons and figure out who’s Mr. Wrong and who’s Mr. Right.

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.

Today, I’m speaking to everyone in my life, as well as everyone who happens upon this blog, to tell you that writing can be a lonely business. You sit around all day with only the people in your head for company. Or you referee fights for your attention between the people in your head and the people outside your head, and never really have the time or brain cells left to just simply reflect. I’m taking that time today and reflecting on the fact that the act of writing–and the act of reading, too–is an act of creation.

Now, we can all figure out that writers create–we create people, we create stories, we create worlds and adventures and truths about humanity both great and small. But readers? You bet. Readers participate in the creation of the story by inviting that story to change them somehow. When I read a story–even if it’s one I end up not liking–I’m still changed by it. I’ve engaged in the experience, and I will look at the world a little differently after I’ve finished the book.

I’m also reflecting that the writer has no ecosystem without the reader, and I want to thank my readers (all seven of you, LOL) for taking a chance on my stories. Each one is a little bit of creation and you helped it along by inviting it into your imagination. I truly hope it nurtured your own creative spark, or at least provided you with a few content hours of relaxation.

Stories are amazing things. The ones we create, the ones we consume, the ones we share and spread around. Today’s the day I take time to appreciate that wonder, and to thank you all for being a part of my story.

Monsoon season has come to lovely Ohio, and already the dehumidifiers are working overtime, and the pea-soup air is making my yearly declaration of “no A/C until after school ends” a failure seven days into May. But one thing the nice, juicy spring does, in between the tornadoes and flash floods, is that it brings the neighbors out into the yards, rushing to get grass cut in between soaking wet days and before it reaches heights that could shelter juvenile giraffes. And that means Being Neighborly.

Normally, I’m a hermit. I’m anti-social to a degree (meaning that social activities drain me, rather than give me energy), and I’m used to being ignored (dog knows my kids do it all the time), so my days are spent quietly, in the company of mostly strangers (or just strange people–I love you guys!) who read my words but may not have ever heard my voice. But spring brings out the neighbors. In the five minutes between thunderstorm cells, we open our windows, open the garage doors, and actually see each other, and that transition can be hard on a person who works at home and who works in relative isolation. Spring sports start up for the kids, so now you leave your lawn chairs in the trunk along with water bottles and activities for the siblings and you spend a few hours, a few days a week, socializing with casual acquaintances whose children wear the same uniform colors as yours.

Social Networking For The Anti-Social

Thing is, especially for us cave-dwellers, we need this interaction. When you work from home, you don’t have a water-cooler crew to hang out with and jaw about last night’s Dancing With The Stars or whatever (or if you do, they’re all products of your own mind and you really should take a vacation, or at least go lie down with a cool compress on your forehead). But you still need that interaction. Before Facebook, there was this crazy thing sometimes called “face-time” or more professionally known as Personal Interaction. And you need this. So in the middle of your mad scramble to optimize the time you have left before school lets out and the summer hits with boiling vengeance, take some time to rekindle the friendships you’ve got with the people who make your life worth working from home (and that includes your family). Go on a date night or a girls/guys night and remember it’s the people in your life that make the work worthwhile.

Writing is what I do for a living. I write about quirky people finding their own crazy paths to happily ever after. My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, shows how a Dating Diva learned how to take her own lessons and figure out who’s Mr. Wrong and who’s Mr. Right.

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.
 

Doesn't she look like she's drowning in flowers?

One of the things I love about writing is the people I meet. Writing is a solitary craft, for the most part, so most of those people reside in my head in one form or another. But outside my head, it’s a rare privilege to meet someone who understands that you’re not really that crazy when you talk about The Voices. And to top that all off, they give you something to read, too? It’s a total win all around.

It’s my very special pleasure to introduce to you a wonderful author and fantastic friend. Diane Reed and I crossed paths at a local RWA chapter meeting, but it wasn’t until our children went to preschool together that we each recognized another writer (it might be more apropos to say she recognized my kind of crazy). We’ve each come from different backgrounds and taken different paths to publication, but we share a love of good writing and good books that change people.

Diane’s novel, Twixt, is available in print and for Kindle at Amazon.com, and it’s FREE this weekend!

“A legacy of witchcraft can return, even when the magic seems forgotten…In search of romance, Rose finds out more about herself and the spirits that surround her, including the truth about her past lives. Twixt is an intriguing modern fantasy, well worth considering.” -The Midwest Book Review

Rose must fix the mistakes of her past lives with the help of fairy magic and soul guardians

I pestered Diane and she’s been kind enough to answer a few questions for me here on the blog.

Isn't this cover just gorgeous?

I personally love it in in Chapter 22 of TWIXT when it occurs to Rose that her stalwart, no-nonsense sister Laurel has been able to see the fairies (or “good people”) all along—she was just too scared to admit it! And then Rose says, “Maybe everyone can see them, if they really want to.” (I personally believe that sentiment, by the way—and yes, I actually saw a fairy once! And I wasn’t even inebriated .

Caffeine!! And getting up very early in the morning (before the children do) to write—that’s my safeguard, the only way I know to remain consistent as a writer. Also, find a great writing buddy who you can set mutual goals and sprint challenges with to help keep you honest. Great cupcakes don’t hurt! (Insert wink at Athena Grayson here )

If you’ve ever had a glorious stretch of time in front of you (or a hurried ten minutes) and sat down (or stood up) to power through your daily word count only to know you were doomed from the first letter, chances are, it came from a lack of writing with purpose.

Writing with purpose means you understand what you are trying to convey in a scene is before you start writing it. This was a lesson I took a long time to learn, and I still haven’t fully internalized it. But I have learned enough to really feel the difference between having a scene with a purpose and trying to dig through words to find it.

Your Process

Every writer’s process is unique. Some writers have no trouble identifying the point of a scene and then sitting down to write it. Others honestly can’t come up with a scene “goal” until they’re actually writing the scene. Some of us, self included, wiffle between the two. “Goal-oriented” scene writing can be of use to both plotters and pantsers, just at different points in the writing process. For me, some scenes make it patently obvious why they want or need to be written.

Many times, these scenes-that-identify-themselves are consequences of a character’s previous actions (Lin has spent years working to make her company attractive to investors, and done such a good job that the investors took over the entire company and laid her off), or challenges to his core self-concept (Jack will do just about anything to protect his friends, including staying away from them to keep them safe, so the scene must be written where one of Jack’s friends calls and says, “We need you here with us.”).

Other scenes need to have their purposes teased out of them in the revision stage. I often find myself at a point in my story where I’m cataloguing what I call the “Bathrooms on the Enterprise” syndrome, wherein I have to write out the minutiae of the characters’ lives and interactions. I do this for two reasons–one, to assure myself the characters really do exist in their world, and two, because I need to catalogue that mundanity to distract my conscious mind so my subconscious can send up the real reason for the scene. When that happens, I know that I have to do one of two things. I either have to stop writing the scene and noodle out the purpose on a piece of scratch paper–and yes, for me, it’s better if it’s paper and pen. Or I have to give myself permission to write a sloppy draft scene with the full expectation that most of it will be cut and rewritten in the revision stage.

Your Goal

When you write a “goal-oriented” scene, you’ve identified a point in the plot or characterization that you want to convey through the scene. Consequently, you write the scene to convey that plot point or characterization layer, and when it’s been successfully conveyed, the scene’s done. Having purpose-driven scenes will help you make every word count, and keep your story on track and moving forward.

And to be perfectly honest, if you already have a scene goal in mind, then the next time you have ten free minutes, you won’t be spending six of them warming up to what to write. With summer coming, those of us who write at home in the quiet of the school day won’t be getting as much of a great stretch of time as we have gotten used to. So planning for the summer’s changed schedule will help you out

Even Purposelessness Has A Purpose

And man, if I were playing Scrabble, I would have brought the house down with “purposelessness.”

Have you ever just sat down and noodled around with a blank sheet of paper or a fresh document? If you haven’t, consider doing it once in awhile. Sometimes when you’re stuck on your current project or your mind needs a break, freewriting can be a great exercise for loosening your writing muscles and also for connecting with your subconscious (your Muse, your inspiration, whatever). Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” advocates “morning pages” – sitting down each morning and writing out three to five pages of whatever’s on your mind, with the full intent of not reading them, just to get that mental clutter out of the way first thing. Then spending the rest of your day creating.

My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, blessed me with many more of the “scenes with a purpose” right out of the gate than some of my other WIPs. Please consider checking it out if you love bad boys who have goals!

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.

Mine are the ones on the left and the right...

This may come as a shocker to some of you but…I have children. I know, most of the time they act like hairless wild animals, but they are indeed human. And as we all know, summer is coming and with it, vacations. Which means kids at home. All day. Everyday.

If you are like me, you’ve learned the joy of those few hours where the house is quiet, the peace is absolute, and the ideas flow freely. Also, the kitchen mysteriously stays clean for more than five minutes and you can go all morning on one cup in the sink.

All that is about to change. Your kitchen will explode and your kids will want to be entertained and your productivity will plummet. Unless you change your routine, your life changes will leave you in frustration.

Flow To The Work

Before the chaos hits you have the gift of a few weeks to prepare yourself for new ways of flowing to the work. Your first step is to figure out the work. Chances are, the work won’t change, even if your schedule does, so it’s up to you to be the flexible element in the equation. Shorter time to yourself means you can accomplish more if you have shorter, portable tasks.

Roll With The Punches

Chances are also good that you will no longer be able to work in long chunks of time, so if you’re counting on some summer miracle to occupy your kids, you’ll likely end up frustrated and behind schedule. You might be able to mitigate this by bargaining with your kids for “quiet time” each day, where they amuse themselves in exchange for some reward later on. Line up short, punchy tasks you can do for times when you know you only have a few minutes while they’re catching lightning bugs (have the jar ready along with a good excuse as to how the little buggers magically “escaped” after bedtime. And let them go before they run out of air, for Pete’s sake!).

Delivery On Schedule

If you can swing this, and your kids can be counted on to keep up their end of the bargain, keep your end and keep your promise. Also, really use that time to work, not linger on facebook or twitter.

Vacation Means Vacation

Set time aside for leaving work behind as well. You already know you’ll have to go to summer sports games or other activities, and there will be Family Time (capitals intended). The best thing you can do in order to get the most mileage out of those vacation times and those summer events is to leave the work behind and be present as much as possible. Your family will thank you for not dragging work everywhere, and your brain will thank you for the break.

You can get as much done in summer as you can during the rest of the year with a little planning. Most importantly, forgive yourself if you can’t keep up the normal work schedule. Some seasons, you switch primary hats. As long as you’re still in control of your own focus, you’ll survive the temporary job fluctuations.

My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material is out now! Please check it out!

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.
 

How many of us live in the perfect family? Show of hands?

always looking back to a past that never was...

Yeah, didn’t think so. Your family’s a bunch of circus freaks, just like mine. While every teenager thinks this, there are some of us who know…the kid’s got a point. Even after our teen years, when we’ve moved forward on the long (sometimes really long), hard (sometimes close to impossible), painful (ohgodI’mbleeding!) journey of coming to accept our relatives for who they are (the delightful freaks with whom you share DNA, with both good and bad traits of their own, sometimes downright hateful and sometimes not as bad as you think), rather than who they should be (the supporting cast in your “I Rule The World” show).

Here’s the critical question. Nobody lives in the perfect family, but how many of you live in the stereotypical family? Are you sure about that? Even your 2.3 kids and a dog and a minivan in white-bread suburbia (and what’s the deal with the point-three anyway? Is he a part-time kid like the neighbor kid who just won’t go home, or what?)–would you say you were stereotypical? Of course not. At least I hope not, because stereotypes are a bitch to live up to. So why do that to your characters?

They'll breed. And you'll die.

Your characters are not stereotypes. We all use archetypes to help define our characters–those broad-stroke sketches that act as the framework on which you hang your individual character. An archetype is a model, the same way those creepy little manikins are for artists looking to learn to draw the human form. A stereotype is an oversimplification, a stick-figure the artist insists is the Mona Lisa.

Whenever somebody goes on a crazy bender in real life, what’s the first thing people start to speculate on? That’s right–what went wrong in that family? Where’s his mother? What did her dad do? What kind of family lets this happen? Not to make light of tragic situations, but very rarely is the family history not a factor when something terrible went down.

Ideally, in your story, one or more of your characters is going to find their breaking points on something. Whether it’s a relationship, the level of violence they are willing to put up with, the sacrifice of one choice too many, they will find a breaking point. That’s the idea–to drive our characters to find and test those limits, because in the testing, they are driven to action. The best way to start your search for those breakpoints is by looking into their families.

Family is a rich vein of conflict to mine. You may not manifest it in your final draft, but it’s still important to know where those family-oriented pressure-points are in any character. And they may reveal themselves in weird ways (that’s the fun of writing). Learn something about your characters by looking at their families.

My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, has two main characters who have to confront pressure points that originated with their families. Barbara grew up with older brothers and a father who were the worst sort of bad boys, and swore never to get involved with one. Jake’s dad was a cop, but that didn’t stop Jake (or him) from having a bad-boy streak. Barbara knows better than to try to change a bad boy, but is Jake really as bad as she thinks?

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.
 

Admit it. You’re scared. I’m scared. We’re scared. As parents, we double down on the fear factor perhaps more than people without kids. But the truth is, we live in a culture of fear. We’re bombed with it, 24/7. All of us. At any given moment, we’re concerned about half a dozen terrors that may actually keep us up at night–crazy drivers on the highways where our children’s buses travel, strangers walking down the same sidewalk where we are, bullies in the school system, pink slime in the school lunch, PET in the plastic cups, preservatives in the food. Where will the money come from next month, what if the company isn’t doing as well as they say it is, what if that plane has a terrorist on it.

We’re driven by fear. I’m not sure if our culture’s significantly more fearful than anybody else’s, but we are certainly vocal about it. Fear drives our economy. Don’t believe me? Are you sure your kids will be happy without that new toy? Are you sure you won’t have missed the Epic Event of the Season if you skip that movie premiere? Are you sure you’re not going to die/become incontinent/never get a boner again without that pill? Are you sure people will love you enough if you can’t fit into those jeans or carry that purse or wear those shoes? Are you sure that hot chick/dude will speak to you if you’re not behind the wheel of that car? Or in “mom” cases–are you sure your kids won’t end up STUNTED IN THEIR GROWTH by the lack of a removable third row of captain’s chairs, cargo net, and individual DVD players IN YOUR CAR? Even for short trips?

See what I mean? Fear motivates us–it’s a great motivator. It encourages us to get out there and DO something, and in our culture today, that usually means BUY something. Yeah, I get it, Madison Avenue has spent gazillions over decades figuring out just what triggers our lizard brains need to be prompted into the Pavlovian response. There’s good money in it. We do a lot to avoid feeling fear. We give up money, self-esteem, common sense, legal freedoms. But what’s the alternative? In the midst of those silly fears are some very real ones. These fears strike chords within us because they are real. They have happened. And they could happen. To us. Some of them are small fears–not being able to haul an extra kid to an outing or pick up a friend’s kid when she needs you to. Some of them are big–finding out you have a treatable, preventable health condition, dealing with bullies, missing out on the water cooler convo over The Hunger Games opening weekend. Some of them are huge–getting that terrifying knock at the door at 11 PM, trying to drive out of your neighborhood only to see there’s a crashed plane blocking your only exit (this has happened to me–thankfully, no one was killed, but another ten feet to the right…). We can’t not be concerned about these things (although, to be honest, crashed planes in your neighborhood are very statistically unlikely, especially if you don’t live near an airport. I do, though), but neither should we let them paralyze us or motivate us into purely fear-based reactionary behaviors.

Fear Versus Vigilance

Scared people do stupid things, like check out weird bumps in the night in filmy negligees, or more subtly, keeping silent instead of speaking out against the injustice of a bully’s actions. Sometimes it’s harmful. “I don’t want to be a bother, so I’m just going to ignore this pain in my arm or my shortness of breath.” Because I’m scared the doctor will say it’s a heart attack or will tell me it’s time to quit smoking. VIGILANT people, on the other hand, recognize their fears for what they are, and think before acting.

Vigilance pauses before reacting. The vigilant person will stop to catalog all the potential causes of the weird bump (and will probably put on some pants before going to investigate. Or if not, then it’s because part of the theft-deterrent includes the calculated shock and awe of seeing a 6ft 2in naked man wielding a broadsword above his head as he barrels down the stairs, howling like an enraged bear, but I wouldn’t know anything about that).

The vigilant person will stop to think about the shortness of breath and arm pain and inform someone else who will then tell them to get their dumb ass to a damn doctor already, or I’ll call the ambulance myself. Oh, and I’m taking your smokes, too.

Vigilance says, hey body scans might stop a single person from hiding explosives on their body, but a.) it will encourage them to get more creative in hiding/exploding things and b.) it will more likely stop several hundreds or thousands of people from living an extra few months radiation-free and their entire lives with a few extra civil rights. Vigilance thinks before blanket authorizations of citizen wire taps and asks if the REactionary cost is worth it. Vigilance wants to know if the REaction is really the best action.

Are you REacting to life, or are you ACTING on it?

Happy Monday, people! What are you doing to live courageously today?

My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, is out now! Please check it out!

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.

I’ve been doing this awhile. For like, decades. For some writers, that’s not even that long. For others, it can seem like geological time. But the plain truth of the matter is that this is a profession where the overnight successes take fifteen years. And in that time, you’re not guaranteed any success at all. But one thing you can never do, is stop learning.

Writing is a lot like an artisanal trade craft. You don’t just learn in the schoolroom, you learn by doing, and even when you’ve developed competency, you are still far away from mastercraft. Now for a jeweler or a plumber or a blacksmith, competency might be all you need for the day-to-day tasks. And yes, even in writing, competency can take you far. But it’s never to a place where you rest on your laurels. If you’re not always pursuing mastercraft–striving to learn something new or be the best you can–you’re missing out.

5 Writing Areas Where You Can Strengthen Your Craft At Any Level

Character – There’s never a bad time to learn more about character. Learning about character is learning about people. How do you approach character? Do your characters come to you whole-cloth, and seem to have depth and humanity and spark? That’s great for you! Now ask why. Take them apart. What gives your characters spark? Which ones did you especially love? Did you hate any of them? Why?

Pacing – Do your stories leisurely meander along like a winding, lazy river? Or do they rush through rapids and over falls without leaving your hapless kayakers readers time to catch their breaths or even right their craft? Ask why. Are you missing opportunities for story development by your frenetic pace? Could your mesmerizingly slow and deep story pace benefit from an occasional kick into higher gear? Why do you enjoy a fast-paced (or slow and thoughtful) story? And why haven’t you tried writing the other way yet?

Antagonist – Are you comfortable writing characters people love to hate? Push yourself to make your antagonists more antagonistic. Make them real D-bags. Do they still resonate with you? And if you have no trouble coming up with valedictorians from Evil Medical School, challenge yourself to make an antagonist that people might kind of like. Can you make an antagonist that’s a half-decent person? Can you make a villain who’s the hero of his own story?

Language and Word Choice – The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that there are a quarter of a million words in the English language. At least. Are the ones you’re using really the best ones to use for that passage? We all have favorite words and phrases. Do yours show up too much? It’s worth it to hunt down that perfect word. Have you made the effort lately?

Theme – Do you find you write the same story over and over again (hint: many of us do, at the atmospheric level). What are your favorite themes? You know, the ones that keep showing up in your work no matter the genre or characters. Why are they your favorites? Your go-to messages? Have you been able to articulate these themes in a way that expresses a truth in the human condition? Have you tried writing something that expresses the opposite of that theme? Or something that expresses that theme, but in distortion? Have you tried exploring different genres and iterations of that theme? If not, why not?

You’re never too old to learn, and you never know enough to not keep on learning. You’re never too accomplished to go back and revisit the basics, either. Dialogue, structure, narrative pacing, conflict–there’s always something new to be learned about these building blocks of story, even if you’ve been there and done that.

My short contemporary romantic comedy, Forever Material, is out now! Please check it out!

All Romance Ebooks

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Amazon (US, UK, DE, and FR).

She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…

He’s absolutely sure she’s right…

But he’s still going to prove her wrong.