Can A Writer Write Well Without Reading

This topic comes up in writing groups often enough that it puzzles me. I'm sure there are questions that spring to mind, but I want to focus on the pros of how reading helps you be a better writer. Exposes us to Different Writing Styles Creating an author's voice/writing style is something that natural evolves,…

Facebook Groups For Writers

As writers, we aim to keep the reader engaged and suspend their belief when able. To do this, we need to understand what would really happen and the assumptions that surround certain ideas. Here are some useful groups to help you hammer out those details. These next three groups have one rule in common—only professionals…

1st POV meets Detail

Novice writes think they need to word vomit every detail of a characters surroundings, and this becomes more obvious in 1st POV. If you try to have the MC walk in a room and give every little detail, the reader's eyes are going to glaze over and they are going to begin to skim read,…

NaNoWriMo

While many people are planning holiday feasts and last minute shopping, writers are silent. NaNoWriMo aka NaNo aka National Novel Writing Month is a huge event in the writing world, and writers strive to reach their daily goal of 1500 words. At the end of 30 days, if they reach their daily goals, they win…

Scrivener

Scrivener is, at the most basic of explanation, a three-ring binder available on Windows, Mac, and iOS. It has the text capabilities of Word mixed with a corkboard, sub-folders, character descriptions, and dozens of other things like giant scrapbook, and it's all customizable to fit your style. It Adapts To You You want a different…

Retrieving Your Cover Template

For indies, we want to make our team's jobs easier, and the best way to help out our cover designers is to have the cover template available for them. IngramSpark For IngramSpark, you'll go to this link—https://myaccount.ingramspark.com/Portal/Tools/CoverTemplateGenerator Fill in the information. IngramSpark Cover Template ISBN is the ISBN. Publisher Reference Number—If you have a lot…

Online Writer Events

You may be familiar with NaNoWriMo. It shines in November as it lites up hashtags across social media, but they also have "mini camps" during the year as well. Maybe you like the accountability aspect, the social/networking aspect, or the challenge to push yourself. Did you know NaNoWriMo isn't the only writer challenges set up…

Why Can’t Readers Leave Reviews

You've sent out ARCs or did a giveaway, and inevitably, there are readers who can't leave reviews. Amazon does a good job laying out the guidelines, but few people take the time to read them. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201929730 and various subsets.) Here are the top reasons your readers can't leave reviews: They are trying to leave a…

Critique Groups Away From FB

Social media has a lot of perks, but it also comes with a downside. It's a rabbit hole of information and various interests, and it's easy to get caught up in various things. To help reduce that itch to explore when you're supposed to be working on your WIPs, here are some recommended critique groups.…

5-Alarm Heat for Romance

Romance works have long been on the forefront of changes in the writing world. The readership is one of the largest by genre, and that hunger functions in books as porn has for the evolution in film. Romance books are a spectrum of heat from sweet and clean to 5-alarm and spicy. There isn't a…