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PubCrawl Alum: Discovering Your Novel’s Hook by Janice Hardy

Aug 29 2016
Posted in:
Beginner Resources, Giveaways, Guest Post, Happy Hour, Speakeasy Sharing, Writers Toolbox

Every novel needs a great hook that grabs reader attention and holds it tight. In a novel’s brainstorming stage, the hook is the gotcha—the twist that will make the novel compelling and fresh. It’s the “ooooh” factor that probably got you excited about the idea in the first place. It might be a plot point, a character goal, or a conflict. It could even be the theme. The hook is what sets your novel apart […]

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Want to Write Better Stories? Write About Change

May 20 2015
Posted in:
Writers Toolbox

If there’s one thing that’s constant in all stories, it’s change. No matter what genre, a character experiences a series of events and things are different by the end of the tale. The more character-focused the novel, the greater and more personal this change is likely to be, but it appears in even the most plot-centric books as well. A mystery starts off with a victim and ends up with a killer caught and justice […]

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Interview With Sarah Nicolas, Author of Dragons are People, Too

May 1 2015
Posted in:
Interviews

A little about Dragons Are People, Too Never judge a dragon by her human cover… Sixteen-year-old Kitty Lung has everyone convinced she’s a normal teen—not a secret government operative, not the one charged with protecting the president’s son, and certainly not a were-dragon. The only one she trusts with the truth is her best friend—and secret crush—the über-hot Bulisani Mathe. Then a junior operative breaks Rule Number One by changing into his dragon form in […]

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Bringing Your Story World to Life

Apr 22 2015
Posted in:
Writing Life

When you mention world building to a bunch of writers, most are instantly going to think about fantasy worlds. Makes sense since that’s the genre that does the most world building from scratch, but every story needs a rich world, even if that world is set in the good old USA. Luckily, the same tricks genre writers use to flesh out their worlds can also be used by non-genre writers. A Room With a View […]

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Is That Subplot Helping or Hurting Your Novel?

Mar 25 2015
Posted in:
Beginner Resources, Writing Life

Subplots have a way of taking over novels. They steal all the action, distract the protagonist, or in the worst cases, shine brighter than the actual plot. Good subplots enhance the story, support the theme, brighten what’s already there, while a bad subplot tries to smother it in its sleep with a pillow. The annoying part is, sometimes we just don’t know which is which when they first come to us. Some of the best-looking […]

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