If all goes as planned, this week we’ll begin remodeling our new home. Let me share a picture that I think ties in with our writing lessons–a Spanish Mission arch on the fireplace, a Dutch door, and a Colonial mantle! This struck me as odd the first time I saw it, but I couldn’t figure […]
Writing Lesson 3.9-Genre: What is it?
October 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Please allow me to introduce today’s guest blogger, Shannon McNear! Shannon has been writing one thing or another since third grade and has completed five novels in genres from Southern fiction to Revolutionary War historical to fantasy. She has eight children–two in college and six still homeschooling–but does her best to steal slivers of writing […]
Writing Lesson 3.5-A Quick Way to Draw in Your Readers
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A guest post by Sandra Orchard Details. Not a hundred of them listed ad nauseum, but key details unique to the POV character that are both fresh and rich in sensory information. Dig deep into the scene. Don’t just say your hero is wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Maybe his mom hung them on the […]
Writing Lesson 3.4-Empower Your Writing with these Simple Techniques
September 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A guest post by Sandra Orchard Do you scratch your head when someone tells you that you need to “show, not tell”? It’s the key to writing compelling commercial fiction, but an often difficult concept to grasp in all its nuances. Today I’m going to share with you some simple ways to… “Show” emotion without […]
Writing Lesson 2.32 – Pass the Action, Please!
May 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In its most basic form, a sentence consists of a noun and a verb, an actor and an action, someone doing something. Jesus wept. The cat sat. A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. We can extend this action by adding a direct object–something that carries the action. This structure tells us, in […]
