Early on in my writing career, I submitted a manuscript to Harlequin. To my extreme excitement, they responded asking for exclusive consideration. As I’m sure all newbie authors have done at one point or another (to our collective chagrin) I thought I’d made it. I’d get a publishing contract, I’d have a dedicated team of... Continue Reading →
*Note: this post is being re-blogged. It was written when I was using Blogger as a platform. I am revisiting it now that I've switched to WordPress. Cheers, V. I love Twitter. It's full of tips and tidbits for writers. Even if I already knew some of the things my fellow Tweeps are tweeting about,... Continue Reading →
A writing tip I see often concerns character building. You hear over and over that you want real characters, characters that live and breathe. It's an important piece of advice. Creating a real character is vital to your story, but what exactly is a real character? What is that extra, indefinable something you, as an author, need to give your... Continue Reading →
I do a lot of web-surfing for writing tips. It’s part of the job ... or, well, if you can call what I do a “job,” which is debatable ... One of the most prevalent topics I see (which is discussed forward and backward and every which way) concerns drafts. Here’s what to do after you’ve... Continue Reading →
In life, we meet countless people who are secondary characters to our life story: our neighbours; our colleagues; the servers at our favourite coffee shop. These people don't exist solely to serve our life stories. They are their own entities. They have their own back stories, their own personalities, and their own actions, reactions, thoughts... Continue Reading →
If you're an indie author, you've got to blog. At least, that's what I've been told by, like, just about every "how to" blog post I've seen. Blogging increases your following. Blogging makes you more visible. ... It's also a major time-suckage. Whether it is, or is not, necessary, I've gotten myself into it, and I'll... Continue Reading →
This morning, as I was scrolling Twitter looking for tips, tricks and things I can re-tweet, I came across a link to a blog post about the problem with quantity-driven writing. As an author of romantic fiction, this is something I—along with my legion of fellow scribblers—struggle with. You need to stay relevant; you need... Continue Reading →
One of the tips that literary agents and writing gurus tend to repeat is keep your sentences short and snappy. Or, as editor Cate Baum says in her blog post Eight Most Common Editing Errors In Self-Published Books, break up those “long-ass sentences.” We’re writers. We love words; it goes with the trade. Not only... Continue Reading →
The days of the flat, dimensionless villain are over. Readers expect more from their stories than the classic good-vs-evil that characterized fairytales of old – think Disney in the 50s. A while ago I wrote a post called Love Your Villain. In it, I talked about the need for creating a villain that your readers care... Continue Reading →
Funny enough, this post is a result of me banging my head against the wall, saying, "What am I gonna blog about? What am I gonna blog about?" If you're like me (and if you're a writer, then you almost definitely are), you've probably suffered from Epic Post Syndrome at one point or another. What,... Continue Reading →
Veronica Bale's Blog 