PurpleCar

One of my characters likes to collect antiques. What does this say about her? Characters with a collecting habit can be pretty interesting. The plotline can go so many different ways.

Writing is an art. Time-worn cliches about suffering for art aside, as writers, our particular brand of suffering is twofold: being misunderstood and fighting against the clock. Writing isn’t seen as an art by the general public. When someone uses paint and canvas, she is easily identified as an artist. The word [...]

My background is in psychology. Now I’m a writer. And I blog. Why not bring those three interests together? Introducing WACKO WEDNESDAYS!
Every Wednesday, I’ll introduce a personality trait/disorder writing meme. Use the info to add interesting facets to your characters. We all have little behaviors/beliefs/superstitions/pathology that make us [...]

Some of you writers out there may not be familiar with the social media world. There are now things called “book videos.” A book video is like a short movie preview for an upcoming or newly released book. In this month’s The Writer magazine, journalist Beth Bakkum writes a short blurb [...]

I’m teaching myself the art of fiction, so I expect a learning curve. Plotting BEFORE one writes is probably easier than what I’m doing, which is trying to fit a commercial plot onto what I have already written. This month I’m determined to outline the plot I’ve been working [...]

Since attending podcamp philly, I’ve come upon a bunch of cool new sites lately, like BlipTV, Viddler, Upcoming and Twitter. One in particular is quite fun: StumbleUpon. Stick in the types of websites you’d like to surf to, download a toolbar and click. “Writing” is a category, “Poetry” is a category. [...]

Science Fiction and Romance genres should never, ever meet
Cafe de Nihara: Why Science Fiction and Romance don’t go together…