Positive Reviews Reviewing – Positive Reviews – these are the lifeblood of any independent author. We live for them! But how can you make them even better? Caveats Don’t provide a positive review in exchange for a positive one you just got. And don’t provide one in the hopes that you’ll get one in return. […]
Welcome to the first quarter of 2020, where my writing turned more into an editing palooza! I also queried short stories and retired two others, to the wilds of Wattpad.
Writing Better Accents Accents can be tough to write. However, not to worry. Because New York Times bestselling author Dayton Ward has some wonderful advice amidst the humor. Distinguishing Each Accent So, can you tell the difference between someone from the Bronx and someone from Brooklyn? And what about Chicago versus Detroit? Or Swedish versus Norwegian? […]
Getting inspiration from TV shows TV shows can be a great source of inspiration. And they can go beyond TV Tropes and even into something (almost, let’s not kid ourselves, folks) profound. So, what do I mean? TV Shows For the most part, we see three kinds of television programs: Comedy Drama Nonfiction And then […]
Review – Cynthia So Cynthia is a fun although ultimately sad story. You see, Cynthia is a Great Dane. And to her sorrow, her master is succumbing to Alzheimer’s. This short story was written for the second volume of The Longest Night Watch. All of the proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Association. I love the […]
Speculating about the future Speculating is fun. However, future predictions can be notoriously inaccurate. I’m still waiting for my flying car, for example. However, some predictions have been eerily on the nose, such as cell phones, which are a lot like Star Trek’s communicators. So here’s a few idea on how to essentially build your […]
Getting inspiration from life events Life events Life events can be extremely inspiring for writers. They can range from baby showers to quinceañeras. Or they might be religious commitment ceremonies like confirmations. Weddings and Marriages are a special case I’ll cover weddings and marriages at a later date. They generally entail much greater pageantry. Intimacy versus Spectacle […]
Giveaways So giveaways can be helpful when you are first starting out. Because people do not know your writing, they might not be inclined to spend too much on your work. Rather than pricing down to nothing, do one better: give your book away as a prize. Amazon, in particular, makes it easy. And on […]
Getting inspiration from films Films can be rather obvious sources of inspiration. However, as always, take care not to get into copyright infringement issues. Hence you will need to tread lightly. And you should pretty much assume any movie you see is not in the public domain. Because the vast majority of them are not. […]
Have you ever heard of #pitmad? What is #pitmad? Are you asking – how does PitMad work? What are the #pitmad hashtags? Then look inside.