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Thankful Thursday: Grateful for my time in religious formation and the lesson of balance in life
I’ve been writing about setting this week, so that’s still on my mind. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one of the settings that most impacted my life: the monastery where I was postulant for nine months. That’s for a couple of reasons. One of the sisters there who was a postulant with me…
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On Setting, Part 3: Crafting Unique and Memorable Action Scenes
Before we launch into this, a caveat: what I will discuss here is a more critical technique for screenwriting than for novels or short stories. As I outline in this post on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I firmly believe that the strength of the written story, even in an action sequence, is…
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On Setting, Part 2: Characterization
It’s almost trite at this point to tell writers of fiction that they should “show, not tell” what’s going on around their characters and in their minds. One way to do this is let setting do some of the heavy lifting of characterization. This is especially doable if you have early scenes set in a…
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On Setting, Part 1: Mood, Lord of the Rings, and the Shire
Setting is so critical to any work of fiction. Today I am starting a series of posts on setting and how to use to it effectively to: The first thing any writer probably thinks of, when they think about setting, is its connection to mood. That is so obvious (and critical to manage well!) We…
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Sunday Reflection 6: Mustard Seeds, Wheat, Weeds, the “Natural Metaphor,” and Slow Growth
Today’s Gospel at Mass highlights the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the weeds and the wheat (from St. Matthew’s Gospel). The mustard seed grows into a large plant, eventually. The landowner must wait for the weeds and the wheat to grow up together before the harvest. There is a connecting theme…
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Creative writing as self-care
While book two of my trilogy is off with beta readers, I’m going through book three again, and then I need to do some serious work revising the prequel. I took a week’s break from all of that while I was running my free promo from June 10-June 14, and I didn’t realize the toll…
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When your writing career (or anything worthwhile) feels out of reach, shoot for consistency
We all go through periods of perspiration without measurable results. We all go through moments when an uphill climb feels never ending. This can take various forms in the life of an author. For instance: My best advice in this instance is twofold: Success very rarely happens overnight, and Henry Ford once defined luck as…
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Thankful Thursday: Thankful for how my characters rejuvenate and inspire me
This Thursday, I am thankful to get back to writing and editing after a crazily busy promo week from June 10-14, when I wasn’t able to write. I found myself more distracted than I would have liked last week–to some degree, inevitably–by the marketing aspects of the promo and the emotional rollercoaster of it all.…
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Reviews or Royalties? KDP Select Free Promo vs Countdown Deal
As I’m sure every indie author knows, if you sign up for KDP Select (giving Amazon exclusive rights to sell the ebook version of your publication for 3 months at a time), you get the option of choosing: Which to choose might come down to your personal situation, preferences, or level of exposure already gained.…
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Questions to ask as you write in first person
When I recently shared (on Facebook) my post about the issues I personally have with first person narration a lot of the time, it sparked a great discussion. Some great points were raised. I wanted to share the insights I took away from that discussion, reading all the comments. I still don’t trust myself to…
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Creative Writing with the Crimson League 