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kayedacus com romance with humor hope and happily ever afters skip to content kayedacus com romance with humor hope and happily ever afters home about books contact craft of writing series blog posts craft of writing series below you ll find all of the series on the craft and life of writing i ve posted over the years ordered by category to view the posts in a certain topic click on the series title and you ll be taken to a new window tab linking to all the posts in that series preparing to write general writing tips becoming a writer how do you become a writer where do story ideas come from how do you cultivate creativity imagination and inspiration these and other questions are explored for those who are thinking about starting a journey in fiction writing or who just need a reminder of why you started writing in the first place critical reading take a master class from the best selling fiction authors of all time by learning how to read critically and analyze published works to learn the craft and techniques that master storytellers both in and out of your genre use to create compelling stories that stand the test of time debunking writing myths never use adverbs always show instead of tell you have to be active on social media read as many craft books as you can sound familiar you ve probably heard these and more taught as rules of writing more often than not though they re myths and i m here to debunk them my writing tools software hardware and post it notes since i ve written far too many pieces of posts that include bits about my writing process and the tools i use the easiest thing for me to do instead of trying to do one long long post about it is to link to where i ve covered this topic previously national novel writing month nano prep preparing to write a manuscript in a month can be a daunting prospect especially if you aren t prepared so let s get prepped ready set write this is the year you ve promised yourself that you re finally going to get around to writing that novel so let s get ready let s get set and let s write top ten writing tips set aside a completed manuscript to create objectivity don t think just write make lists here s a list of the top ten tips that have helped me the most as a professional author write an inspirational acrostic craft of fiction writing beginnings middles and endings characters bad guys the villains and antagonists we love to hate with help from two books i picked up the power of the dark side pamela jaye smith and bullies bastards bitches jessica page morrell we ll analyze the bad guy characters in our writing and reading and for those of you who aren t writers we ll be looking at the antagonists in books and movies for examples be your own casting director when you write do you collect photos of your characters actors models singers athletes etc so you can better describe them do you need to have a photo of a person before you can start writing about your characters have you ever seen an actor or a photo of a person who inspired you to write a story then you might be a visually oriented writer and character casting may be a great tool for your writing toolbox creating credible characters creating credible characters i love alliteration will be about our characters duh where they come from how we get to know them and how we get them to come to life on the page conflict the conflicts in your story are the points that make up the majority of your plot you will need minor conflicts resolved in one or two scenes and major conflicts those that affect the outcome of the story hooking the reader picture this scenario you re watching your absolutely favorite show things are getting dicy for the heroes all of a sudden there s an explosion your heroes lives are in danger what s going to happen to them are they okay will they survive then the screen goes black and then you see to be continued nooooooooooo you scream i have to know what happens next this is what we discuss in this series point of view in modern day writing terminology point of view has come to mean not only what person the story is written 1st 2nd 3rd but also which characters viewpoints the story is told through learn more about both povs and viewpoints in this series plotting subplots and structuring outlining your novel now with all this talk of rising action and suspense i know it sounds like i m talking about something that is more action related something that has life and death consequences while those are the easiest stories to use as illustrations for plotting because they re plot driven what i plan to get into in this series is looking at how plot works at its most basic levels which can then be applied to all genres say what a series about dialogue since 99 of writers are readers we all know when dialogue works and when it doesn t when we read it we just may not be able to put our fingers on exactly what it is that makes it work or not well that s what we re going to try to figure out in this series scene it the main thing that makes a scene a scene is action something needs to happen in the scene to move the plot forward in order for the scene to be relevant to the overall book character development conversations or conflicts are good but they must move the plot forward otherwise they re stagnant and will drag the story down when all is said and done scenes are the bite sized pieces in which we tell and digest stories but how do we make sure that they re gourmet and not fast food or worse inedible that s what we re going to look at in this series setting would steel magnolias have had the same characters if set in a beauty shop on the rough streets of detroit would jack and rose s upstairs downstairs romance have had the same level tension if they hadn t been on a certain ill fated luxury liner and who can think of lord of the rings without bringing to mind the white city of gondor the shire or edoras with the great hall of meduseld sitting atop that hill out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains what cinematographers can do with cameras lighting and computer generated graphics we writers must do with words on a page and not only that we must do it in a way that incorporates the grittiness of a new york street or the relaxed honey filled air of a small midwestern town into the action of our stories without being intrusive movies are allowed wide sweeping angles of an arizona desert at sunset we aren t showing vs telling showing versus telling is like the difference between watching a movie and having the plot of a movie recounted to you by someone who s seen it or between reading a book and reading the synopsis or outline the first is active experienced first hand immediate the second is passive second or third hand distant voice a writer s voice like the voice of our favorite singer the familiar person on the other end of the phone or an actor using his or her own accent is something that is easy to recognize and nearly impossible to define so let s explore it let s see if we can define what voice is and then figure out how to go about cultivating our own unique voices as writers writing the series novel when it comes to fiction what is a series well to put it simply a fiction series is a number of books written around a particular continuity theme it can be a duet a trilogy or an open ended number of books but they are a series only if there is some thread that ties them all together let s explore what series are how to tie them together and the pros cons and pitfalls of writing them writing romance novels if we were to survey 100 romance novelists why they write romance novels we would get approximately 5 000 reasons but i think what it boils down to is that we re adrenaline junkies just like those people who dive off cliffs in hawaii skydive snowboard or subject themselves to horror films it s just that we get our adrenaline rush from the emotions evoked by two characters facing and defeating the odds to achieve what is so rare in real life a happily ever after ending editing revision this page includes links to my series beyond the first draft which discusses re reading revisions and some old school submission information pre 2010 and my series manuscript 101 which covers some basics of copy editing for fiction writers as well as a collection of other one off posts or posts from other series that include information on what to do after finishing the first draft the writer s life critiquing being a good critique partner is a talent but can be learned as a skill if worked at hard enough so let s explore together what it takes to learn the skill of both giving and receiving critiques i d love for you to post your comments questions and concerns about your critique experiences entering writing contests some writers get caught in a hamster wheel of being a professional contest entrant instead of striving to be a published writer they spend so much time working on their first ten fifteen or twenty five pages to enter into contests but never finish a manuscript or if the manuscript is completed they never spend any time revising the rest of it but just keep tweaking the first part based on contest judges feedback and it really made me think about why i chose to enter hei sig that second time and while i did enter it twice in two vastly different incarnations entering a contest wasn t my main focus the contest feedback was the litmus test to see if it was ready to be submitted to editors and agents goal setting we all have dreams things we want things we hope for but will the dream of being a writer actually get you there is it something that s as nebulous as insubstantial as the stories that run through our heads when we re asleep or is the dream attainable i thought we d delve into that here so let s get started networking writing conferences i am an introvert i spent the first nearly 15 years of my adult working life in advertising sales offices as a support person the person in the background who supported the outgoing vivacious talk to anyone sales people just the mention of the term networking made me ill until i started attending writing conferences and gaining confidence in myself as a person and as a writer and just like that i realized that the things i was doing naturally through that process was networking i break down what networking really is in a couple of focused series here as well as another series about attending writers conferences you know you re a writer if jump in with the fun in a few posts of jokes memes describing the writer life if you like what i do here and want to keep this content free consider supporting me and my work by buying me a coffee share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on pinterest opens in new window pinterest share on tumblr opens in new window tumblr share on reddit opens in new window reddit share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on mastodon opens in new window mastodon 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