The definition of a fiction genre is simply a category of literature. It determines, among other things, what shelf it sits on in a bookstore or a library. For readers, it’s good to be aware of different fiction genres. Sometimes we can widen our horizons and read a book in a genre we don’t often explore. For writers, knowing what
Hey friends! It’s WIP Wednesday, the first Wednesday of the month, when I share a little bit of a work in progress and invite you to do the same. The rules are pretty simple: post an excerpt in the comments section of 500 words or less, with no graphic content (some cursing is okay). No critiquing other people’s work—we’re often
Hi friends! This isn’t Halloween playlist per se, but I’ve gotten a couple of requests for it and I thought the week before Halloween would be the perfect time to post it. It’s a good writing playlist for horror, suspense, and mystery novels and screenplays, and it’s also good, intense music to listen to when writing a book with a
Hi, friends! At work, we are reading lots of manuscripts after an open submission period. That’s got me thinking about some of the common issues plaguing romance manuscripts. I often get emails asking, “Why is my novel getting rejected?” I want to help, because I’m a writer myself. But sometimes a combination of reasons led to the rejection, and unfortunately,
Hi, friends! I’ve written before about how I always have a movie of the month. In September, my movie was Dead Poets Society, which made me nostalgic for my undergraduate days. It’s funny that the movie had that effect on me, though. For the most part, the boarding school in the movie is a place of conformity, restriction, and heavy-handed (literally)
Hi friends! It’s WIP Wednesday—the first Wednesday of the month, when I share an excerpt of a work in progress and invite you to do the same in the comments section below. If it’s rough, that’s fine. That’s the “in progress” part! We don’t critique anything, but encouraging words to fellow authors are good karma. Please keep your excerpt under
One of the big questions writers run into is, “What should I name my character?” There are good reasons to take character naming seriously. If an agent or editor is reading a query letter, or if someone in a bookstore is reading the back cover of a book, the characters’ names are one of the first things they learn about