Workshops are invaluable

I just wanted to do a quick post on what's been happening in the last few weeks. I am happy to say I am in a great workshop over at YA Adventures in Publishing They offer this once a month and if you're one of the first five entrants then this is an opportunity to really polish your first pages. Ive learned a lot in the last 2 weeks so far, and a fresh set of eyes on your writing is the best thing you can do when in revisions.

The advice and suggestions from everyone involved is to encourage the writer, bring out what we cant see.

So these next few weeks will have me revising, and contributing. and scouring my manuscript, again.

Have a great week!

Compulsion Trailer - cant wait to read this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afli_Tq34dc&feature=youtu.be

Go here http://www.adventuresinyapublishing.com/2014/12/book-boyfriends-alpha-males-and-danger.html to enter the giveaway. Don't wait too long!

Merry Christmas to all

Just sending holiday greetings and good wishes to everyone. I'm taking these glorious days off to write, daydream, read, and write more. Hope the season gives you oodles of inspiration!.

!!!!. is all i can manage at the moment. :):):) whew!

In which I come up for air

It's been..well..a while since I've blogged. So this is a short and sweet post while in between life, kids, reading...and writing. Ive come to the point in my manuscript that I'm tearing it apart like an animal left without food for months. I'm being merciless and it's both gratifying and sobering. My outline, (which I believe has saved me numerous times from veering away from the story), and my synopsis are in the process of being completed. What a task......But worth every minute I spend doing it. I can picture my book on the shelf at the BAM store up the road. I can see myself signing it, talking about it to strangers..you know...be the ball and all that. So, that's the progress update. I have all the good intentions of paying more attention to my blog, but you know what they say about good intentions.....



Keep writing, its what your meant to do.

Crafting the flow of a story

I recently read a book that sat with me for days after I closed the cover. I realized that the flow of the story was so eloquent, so streamlined, that I was pulled in and followed along without any 'hesitation. I didn't even skim...(which I'm guilty of doing). I recall some great advice from Elmore Leonard, his "10 Rules For Good Writing."

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

"My most important rule is one that sums up the 10," he wrote. "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

*Excerpted from the New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle”

So i sit at my keyboard today with that advice in mind. A story can only be as good as the writing allows. Allow it to flow, smooth and effortless to the reader, all the way to the end.

--SC