Word Magic
Want to sell your fiction? I receive questions about fiction sales a couple of times a week—often from baby authors, who haven’t yet started writing. These embryo authors want guarantees that their writing will sell, before they invest time and energy. Sadly, writing comes first. Please, write consistently, and effortlessly. If you’re forcing yourself to write, it will always be … Read more
How do you plan your novel? Do you create an outline, or forget plotting and just write? In a recent fiction writing class, we discussing planning fiction, and how much planning is necessary. I’m a big fan of fast plotting. In this post on plotting fiction, we discussed plotting in an hour or less: Plotting fiction in an hour (or … Read more
You’re writing fiction. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying: show, don’t tell? “Show, don’t tell,” is shorthand for write in scenes and it’s a vital skill. Writing fiction: why is “writing in scenes” so important? Essentially, writing in scenes helps you to write exciting, unputdownable books. In today’s publishing climate they’re the kinds of books you MUST write if you want … Read more
If you want to improve your writing, develop copywriting skills. By “copywriting skills” I mean skills in writing to sell. As writers, we’re selling all the time, no matter what we write: a tweet, an email message—or a novel. Start by paying attention to what gets your attention, every day. If you want to develop copywriting skills, pay attention We … Read more
This year, the most-read posts were about self-publishing fiction and writing (how to write.) Unsurprisingly, I’ll publish more of the same in 2021. A couple of my writing students asked: “can you still make money self-publishing fiction?” Is self-publishing fiction still viable in 2021? People love entertainment, so yes, self-publishing fiction is still viable going forward. That said, if you’re … Read more