Note: This post from February, 2014 is being re-blogged from my previous Blogger platform. I've noticed a disturbing trend in my own reading lately. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve found that the last several romances in a row that I’ve picked up I’ve promptly put down. At first, I began to panic. Was I... 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 →

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 →

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 →