Dear Readers, After a week off for good behavior (I typically don't blog in 5th weeks of the month), I'm back with a cool outlining hack for writers. If you're anything like me, your outline is probably about one-third as long as your actual book. No, but really. *stares in plotter* I do a full chapter-by-chapter outline for each book, revising it in between drafts. I usually have everything from GMCs to worldbuilding notes to actual dialogue in my outline, so it can be chall

I know what it's like. You start out with a great idea, you've got all this momentum, you get halfway through your book, and wham! The words just stop flowing. No matter what you do, you can't recapture the shiny newness of that initial creative burst. I’ve written six books so far in THE CIRCUIT FAE series. Further, I’ve been an editor for a number of small presses, helping authors make their publishing dreams a reality. Today, I'd like to let you in on my secret of why I'm

Every year at this time, I do a year in review where I take a hard look at my writing process and look for ways to improve. This year, I'm sharing those insights with you, my pretties! I've hit on five basic elements that can vastly improve your writing, whether you're a pro or a beginner. My Top 5 Takeaways for 2017 are: 1. Have Daily Goals I've said it before, but I cannot stress how important daily goals are. Writing daily not only helps you break that 50,000 word manuscri

As a senior editor for a romance e-publisher, oftentimes, my job is to disappoint hopeful authors, to tell them that their work is not up to par. I often joke that my job is to tell people their book baby is ugly. As an author, I know how criticism and rejection can sting. I know the knee-jerk reaction to call that agent, that editor, that publisher a stupid stupidface who doesn't understand you, your work, the genre, anything. I get it. I really do. As writers, we're passion

Fight scenes! Many writers dread writing them, and who can blame them? Writing a good fight scene is an art in itself. Here are some of my best pieces of advice. Caveat: this is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Also, for every single thing I've said here, I will bet you, dollars to donuts, there is a best-selling author who does exactly the opposite. The key is: use and adapt what works for you, your style, and your book. Writing is about constantly, constantly making smar

I’ve been an editor for eight years now, and I've noticed that one of the hallmarks of a newer, inexperienced writer is “fancy” dialogue tags. For some reason, many newer writers feel the need to spice up their tags. Maybe it’s that their creative writing instructors told them that said is too boring or that they should try to be original or shouldn’t repeat themselves. Whatever the reason, I often feel like these authors go to the thesaurus, look up said, and then pepper the