Writing 101 Redux: Colons and Semicolons

When you're writing a book, the simple period and comma aren't always enough. Sometimes, you have to start using somewhat fancier punctuation -- like colons, semicolons and ellipsis. Today's TBT Writing 101 will help you remember how to use them perfectly. 

Perfect punctuation is important in every book, because (trust me) some reviewer is going to notice the first colon you put in the wrong place. Learn how to use colons and semicolons the right way, and you can do a lot more with your sentences. Read all about it in this throwback Writing 101.

Writing 101: The Neverending Series

No matter how you might feel about the books, you know you wouldn't mind writing something with Twilight-like popularity. You wouldn't mind having a popular series like The Hunger Games, probably, just like most authors. Writing a series is great. It allows you spend some time in a certain world, gives you the chance to really develop your characters and could even become a hugely successful movie franchise. But writing a series can also turn into a trap. This is the good side and the really ugly side of a neverending series of books.

This is the Series That Doesn't End

Sometimes, a book series can become much bigger than the author ever expected. The character in the series, the series itself, becomes much bigger than the author. Like, way bigger. Some book series don't end. Like, ever.

Writing 101: Update Your Outline

My struggles with my current manuscript have been well documented. I tried to push my way through writer's block, discovered that I needed to change the story, erased a ton of stuff...and then, I promptly got stuck again. But recently, I discovered the problem and ended up unlocking an ongoing problem I have with my writing. Maybe you've got the same one. Ask yourself a question: do you update your outline? 

Writing Inside the Lines

I start every book with a lot of ideas about how I'm going to write it. I sit and plan out every single chapter, not in great detail but in some detail, and then I start to write. And inevitably, all that stuff I planned ends up changing. Characters end up being different people than I imagined, events unfold in ways I didn't expect, new things happen that I never planned for. I go with it, of course, because good things can happen this way. But I don't go back and update the outline...and that ended up causing me some big problems.

Writing 101: The Danger of Doubting Yourself

For me, it almost always follows the same pattern. At the beginning of the book, I’m excited. I’m writing everything the way it’s supposed to written, it’s all flowing well. Then, I get to some intense scene. And I start to wonder. Should that character be killed? Should that scene be here? Should these two kiss right now? There’s a lot of danger in doubting yourself, and I know. It happens to me all the time.

Self Doubt

I ask a lot of questions. It's how I come up with a lot of my ideas, but sometimes it take a turn for the dark side. Sometimes, I start asking myself questions after I've already started working on a project. I'll get to asking questions, and instead of writing I'm fooling around with my outline and erasing paragraphs and doing new research. This is what self doubt does to me. Self doubt is different for everyone, but it almost always has the same effect: it keeps you from writing well. 

Writing 101 Redux: Tense

If you get tense over your tenses when you're writing, today's Throwback Thursday post was made for you.

It's don't-be-so-tense-about-tense Thursday, and I'm celebrating with this Writing 101 all about it. Relax. Tense isn't so hard when you know more about it.

Writing 101: Everyone's Opinion is Subjective

Beta readers. Reviewers. Your good friend. That writers group you joined. A lot of people are going to give you a lot of opinions about your book. They'll ask questions and tell you what they think. And as the author, you've got to remember that everyone's opinion is subjective.

Everybody's Got Something to Say Except for Me and My Monkey

It's a fine line for any author to walk. You need the opinions of readers, because you're writing for the readers. But you also need to stick to your guns when it comes to telling the story that you want to tell. In other words, you can't always follow the advice that your beta readers, friends and reviewers give you. Sometimes, you have to write what you're going to write anyway -- and leave it that way.

Writing 101: Writing is Re-Writing

Getting finished with the first draft is a hurdle, and it's a good one, but it's just the first one. Real writing is a whole lot of re-writing. You'll end up changing lots of stuff about your first draft...maybe even most of it. 

Rewrites 

In other words, you're going to have to write everything twice -- more or less, anyway. You'll have to tweak and perfect, change and edit. You'll have to go over everything and possibly alter all of it before you come up with a finished product that you can use. Writing is rewriting...and sometimes, it's awful.

Writing 101: Are You Disposable?

You know how they say you're only as good as your last book? They say it because it's true. Some people throw books away when they're done reading them. I delete mine right off the Kindle. You may not like it, but as an author you are disposable...to at least some of the readers, all of the time.

Getting Trashed

The life of an author can be painful,. If you send out letters to agents and publishers pitching your book, you will be rejected by some of them. If you self-publish and you court the book bloggers, you will get reviews that hurt your feelings. If you make yourself available to fans through social media, you will be leaving yourself open to ridicule and attacks. But few things hurt quite as bad as simply being totally, completely ignored.

Writing 101: Choosing a Title

Choosing a title can be one of the hardest parts of writing a book, and I should know. I had finished a book almost in entirety before I managed to figure out what the title was supposed to be. I struggle with it every time, but not all authors do. Today's guest author has found a creative way to avoid titling her own book, in fact: she's turned it into a promotional tool.

Book Titles and You

Guest author Roselyn Jewell is staging a unique contest to figure out her book's title. See my thoughts on writing book titles, and maybe you can help Roselyn come up with hers. Now here's Roselyn:

Hi everyone,

My name is Roselyn Jewell and I have recently made my first foray into the YA genre! Previously I’ve written almost entirely romance novels, but I came up with what I think is a great idea for a YA series and I’ve finished the first book in the series, which will be offered as an e-book in early March. In preparation for this, from now till March 1st, I’m running a contest where you get to submit suggestions for the title for the book! The prizes are:

A) The book will have the title you selected + one of the characters’ names will be changed to your name

B) You’ll win a free copy of either the final version of the YA book or a free copy of any other book that I have out

C) Your name will appear in the acknowledgements section of the book

You can read the full details, which include a synopsis of the book, at http://www.roselynjewell.com/1/post/2015/02/name-my-next-novel-contest.html.

Please feel free to send any submissions, suggestions, feedback, questions, etc. to me at Roselyn@roselynjewell.com. I'm also on social media as jewellromance on Facebook and Twitter. Good luck everyone!

 Roselyn Jewell

http://www.roselynjewell.com

Untitled

Hilary lives in a world that is supposed to be "perfect." The government provides all of the basic necessities and if you want "luxury" items you can take on non-governmental work or odd jobs to earn luxury dollars to buy pretty much anything you could desire. The downside? She's assigned a career she hates, a place to live that she's never even been to before, and a guy she's supposed to marry that she's not even sure she likes. In fact, she's not sure she can ever feel that way about any guy, period. Oh yeah, and this all happens to everyone when they turn 17. Hilary tries to make the best of it but goes through a series of events that make her question who she is as a person and whether or not "perfect" can ever really exist, no matter what they want her to believe. 

About the Author

I'm an author, a wife, a mother, a friend, a sister, a daughter, and so much more! I've always loved reading and found myself wanting to continue the stories I loved so much, which is how I started writing. Now I've finally reached my dream of being published. My novels are mainly romance, though there are a lot of other elements as well. My books prove that you can have the romance and the passion without having to sacrifice great plot lines or strong character personalities.

Writing 101: How to Use Dashes

The dash is one of the most under-valued pieces of punctuation, and one of the most improperly-used. Learn to master the art of the dash, and you can avoid all your complicated punctuation problems. Ignore this lesson, and you'll find yourself mired in a morass of commas from which there is no escape.

Dashing off Good Punctuation

A dash functions as a super comma, and that's why all writers should love it. When you already have a lot of punctuation to deal with in a sentence, the dash can be employed to break up the sentence to make it readable (and grammatically correct) again. Learn how to use the dash, and it will be your friend.

Writing 101: The Fall of Books

When was the last time you cracked open an epic poem and began to read it? Do you casually browse through "Beowulf" when the mood strikes, or thumb through "The Canterbury Tales?" Probably no, because that stuff is way old. And it's got me wondering whether or not anyone will even be reading books  100 yeas from now. 

Who's Actually Read Virginia Woolf?

In the year 1915, Virginia Woolf published "The Voyage Out." Have you ever read it? She's a well-known author, or she was, and enjoyed a highly successful career before she walked into the ocean one day. The point is, she was a successful working writer in her own time and you recognize her name. But have you read her books? Did you read this one, published 100 years ago? Did you read any of them ever? Would it make a difference if I told you that you can read her books for free?

Writing 101: Are You Inspired, or Are You Avoiding It?

I always say -- correction, I used to always say -- that you should give in to inspiration when it strikes. I did, after all. But now I'm wondering if I was really inspired, or if I was trying to avoid writing something else.

Avoiding It

It all started when I finished my book "Hope's Rebellion." I had known for some time that I was going to start working on a project called "What Happened to Mary Celeste?" I roughed out the first few chapters, and then I got stuck. I started working on buying a cover for the book. After all, I knew the title already, and I would need a cover. But then I started to work on the trailer, too. I would need a trailer, right? Sure I would. Soon enough, however, that was finished as well. I was still in the exact same place with the manuscript. That's when I started writing a different book altogether. I was inspired. Correction. I thought I was inspired.

Guest Post: Using Wattpad to Promote Your Book

Today we're joined by author M.J. Austin for a guest post on using Wattpad for marketing.

You have published your book and it is online, but you aren’t getting any sales. What’s wrong here? Most likely, it is simply because nobody knows your book is "out there." It can be extremely difficult to get your book out there, especially if you are being self-published.

That’s not to say that when you have a traditional publisher that it is super easy. Many publishers today require you to do your own marketing.  There is a multitude of options when it comes to marketing your book. You could do a blog tour or focus on social media, but those aren’t the only options.

What is Wattpad?

Wattpad is a critiquing style platform that allows authors to upload either portions or the full copy of their books for others in the community to read and comment on. Amanda Hocking, a very successful YA author has used this platform to uploaded samples of her books for users to read and purchase on sites like Amazon. 

Writing 101: What Writing Used To Be

During the Middle Ages, storytellers were members of the royal court. They knew all the juiciest gossip, they were present at all the big events, and they traveled around telling their tales to large audiences. Today's storytellers sit somewhere with a laptop, typing quietly. Which sounds more fun?

A Troubadour's Life for Me

The storyteller was always a welcome sight in medieval Europe. You may have found them in a market place, but you were sure to find them at court. Every king and queen of note had storytellers at court, a place where the royals granted various favors to their favorites and everyone danced, dined and drank for almost any reason whatsoever. 

Writing 101: How Do You Know You're Obsessed?

The minute I started thinking of one of my books as "my masterpiece," I should have known I was in serious trouble. Not just because it's arrogant, which clearly it is, but because it's the start of an unhealthy obsession. It's something that happens to lots of artists and storytellers, and I'm here to warn you that it could happen to you.

Obsession

As an artist, it's very easy to become obsessed. So easy, in fact, you may not even realize that it's happening to you. There's a way to find out.Obsessed artists generally have a single trait in common. If you have it, too, then you might be obsessed.

Writing 101: Rewrite it Already

If you can't make the history work, if things feel off, if the timeline you envisioned just isn't working out, quit trying to make it work and rewrite it already. If it isn't working right now, it isn't going to start working five chapters from now. And I should know. I found this out the hard way.

Writing, Again

Rewrites are really the worst. No freelance writer wants to rewrite something they already wrote, and no author ever wants to go back and change a story that's already down on paper. But sometimes, what you've written just isn't working with the rest of what you still need to write. Stories can be tricky like that. And before they trick you into writing 100 pages too many, go back and rewrite.

Writing 101 Redux: Using Pen Names

Many writers are using pen names to develop a dedicated author personality and presence online. But how careful are you being about the name you're selecting?

Read my Writing 101 post for more info about using pen names this Throwback Thursday, and remember why it's so important to choose a great one.

Writing 101: Stand By Your Guns

Being a writer means making a lot of decisions, hard ones. You're going to have kill people, traumatize others. Someone is going to have to lose. You're going to write things that people don't like, sometimes. When it comes to making decisions as a writer, you have to be firm. You have to stand by your guns. 

Ready, Aim, Fire

I like to make all my decisions right at the beginning of a book. This is why I create an outline. Once you decide who's going to die and who's going to fail and which heart is going to get broken, you need to stick with those decisions. It gets harder to do that if you're writing a series and you begin to develop attachments to the characters. It gets more difficult as readers form attachments to those characters. But as a writer, you stick to your guns.

Writing 101: Going it Alone

I didn't tell a single member of my family, nor any of my friends, that I was writing a book. I didn't say a word about it to anyone, in fact, until it was published. Now I self-publish, and I still find it difficult to talk about my current projects. I'm used to going it alone, but I've learned that it's the absolute worst way to go about writing.

Unsupported

Writing anything is difficult. Writing a book is an exercise in self-torture. And writing a good book takes more than what you currently have inside of you. If you're going to write something great, you're going to need other people in your life to help you get through it. At the very lest, you're going to need someone who can remind you to eat something every once in a while.

Writing 101: Writing About Writing

Here's how you know you're watching a movie that was adapted from a Stephen King book: a) something weird is going on; b) the people in the story don't know that weirdness is going on; and c) --and this is most important-- one of the characters, probably the main one, is a writer. Stephen King writes about writers all the time, because that's what he knows. But here's what I learned in my time of writing about writers: mostly, it's only writers who are interested. Writing about writing is all well and good, but it's even better if you don't do that at all. I'll tell you why. 

On Writing...

People are always interested when they find out that I'm a writer...at first. Once they understand that writing is me sitting on my couch and staring at my screen, they realize that writing is actually pretty boring. It is tedious, hard work. And it isn't interesting. This is why you shouldn't write about writing.

Singing of Jade's 'Song'

"It's a tale of mermen, selkies, and adolescent youth trying to determine their place in this newly discovered strange world."

"Varden puts together this beautifully colorful and vividly imaginative world that immediately draws you in. I was entranced from the first chapter and enjoyed every twist and turn."

"Song of the Sea" has been reviewed by Ann Livi Andrews at her blog. Go check it out to learn which underwater species I would rather be, what you can expect in the next installment of the Saltwater Secrets trilogy, and who my favorite author is!

After you read the review, get your copy of Song of the Sea.

Writing 101 Redux: Naming Characters

Today's Throwback Thursday covers a fundamental storytelling tool that all writers need to know: how to name a character.

Get all the tricks for naming characters, and find out where to go to make it easier, in this TBT Writing 101.

Writing 101: By the Way, No One Gets It

As a writer, part of your job is to describe new settings, scenarios and ways of life to readers. I personally will never know what it's like to be an ER nurse who is helping the police investigate a series of hospital murders, but I can go find that book and read all about it. You can put your readers anywhere and make them feel anything...with one exception. When you try to tell ordinary civilians what you're personally going through as a writer, they won't ever really get it.

Ever.

Screaming at the Wind

Have you ever stood outside and screamed into the wind? It rips your voice away and swallows your syllables, until there's nothing left but you, standing there with a red face. This exercise is actually more effective than trying to explain what it's like to be a writer to all your friends and family.

Writing 101: Backups of My Backups

I took it upon myself to start counting the other day, and found no less than 7 different files across my devices that were named "manuscript." It's the title I use when I really have no title at all (which I change once I finally figure it out). And here's the twist to the story: those 7 files are not a mistake I made. They're all the same book. When I write, I make backups of my backups. This is a post about why you should, too.

Crazy

When it comes to your books, it pays to be just a little obsessive-compulsive. It's a good idea to be just a little bit -- I said a little bit! -- crazy. Like me. And seriously, I'm a lunatic about backing stuff up. I'll tell you how you can be, too.

Writing 101: Are You Too Emotionally Attached?

It takes a writer to create a horror story, because writers know horror. If your computer has ever imploded and erased your files, if you've ever lost that chapter and don't know where it went, if you've ever been held hostage by a crazy woman and was forced to burn a manuscript, then you know how to answer this question: are you too emotionally attached?


$&!/ Happens

I really don't care who you are or what your process is. If you write long enough, at some point something is going to happen. There will be a random bolt of lightning, a system wide crash, a cat that jumps on the keyboard and somehow manages to reset the hard drive in 10 seconds when you couldn't figure out how to do it in three hours while reading the user's manual. You will, no matter what, lose some of your writing. You may lose a few pages, an entire chapter, or even a whole manuscript. It's going to happen no matter how careful you are. And when it does, you'll find out pretty quickly whether or not you're too emotionally attached. Since you're a writer, you probably are. But you can't be, because the world is full of cats and lightning.

Writing 101 Redux: Should You Ever Give Up?

Should you ever give up on being a writer? At some point, are you just wasting your own time and everyone else's? To answer the question, I'm going to re-visit one of my favorite former Writing 101 posts. 

Today's Throwback Thursday tip will help you answer the question of whether or not you should ever give up on your writing, and I'm not pulling any punches. 

Writing 101: How to Make a Word

The English language has more words in it than I personally think is necessary. The vocabulary is so big, experts can only guess at how many words there actually are. That's because language is a changing thing, something that's always evolving. You can actually force some of those changes yourself. You just need to know how to make a word. 

The Right Words

I'm not a big fan of inventing words, because like I said the language is already too big, but if you're going to do it you may want to try using a formula. There's a really easy way to invent new words, and people have been using it for years. Just add -ish. 

Writing 101: Even If I Over-Use Even...

Every writer has flashes of insight every so often, and thankfully I am no exception. And just the other day, while I was proofreading something, I had to scold myself aloud. I had to tell myself something: you use the word "even" too much. And I do. Are you doing it, too?

Even If I Do...

It's not the first problem I've had with "empty" words that don't really lend anything to the story that I'm writing. I even wrote an entire post about my weird habit of preceding most of my sentences with "it seems" for a long period of time. Mark Twain had a problem with the word "very." Right now, I'm even over-using "even" -- so often that I keep finding little ways to slip it into my writing, even now. 

Writing 101: Writing Exercise

Stuck? Don't know what to write next? Can't create something that works? It's okay. I have a writing exercise that can help you with all of that. 

Just Keep Swimming

Sylvia Plath practically wrote an entire chapter about trying to start a book in The Bell Jar. I've stared at blank screens way more times than I'd like to admit. Sometimes, just getting started with something is the hardest possible writing you'll have to do. There's a way to fix it, and it's easier than you think.

What's the key to shaking yourself out of that funk and turning a blank screen into big chunks of text? Just keep swimming.

Why I Love/Hate Writing

 Every writer hates writing sometimes. Or maybe it's just me.

Visit Taking It One Page at a Time, a blog by freelancer and friend of the blog Danica Page, to find out why I fell in love with writing...and why sometimes, I hate it.

Writing 101 Redux: Copyrighting Your Writing

Are you copyrighting your books? Are you doing it the right way? Depending on where you are in the world, the laws are different. Know them, and protect your writing from theft. 

Get into all the details of copyrighting your books with me today in this Throwback Thursday Writing 101 tip.

Writing 101: Calling a Spade a Spade

You can call me an indie author if you like, but you can also call me an autonomous wordsmith if you really feel like it. 

Or maybe you'd better just stick with indie author. When you are one, you'll find that often simple language is the best. So when you're writing, let's just call a spade a spade. It takes too long to look for synonyms for the word shovel.

Writing 101: Several Years' Worth of Punctuation Frustration

I often write about the writing problems that I encounter, and this is one that just won't go away. I have so much trouble when it comes to apostrophes and time, I'll usually find a way to re-write the sentence instead. The rule is confusing, and it's one that you'll have to memorize in order to get right. 

Punctuation Frustration

You can wait for a package to come for months, and you can wait for a month of Sundays. You can even wait a week's time for that package to come to your door. But when you have two weeks' worth of waiting piled up, punctuation gets totally flipping confusing. Yes, I'm about to come up with some better examples of how to do it correctly. 

Writing 101: Forums, What Are They Good For?

Reading writer forums was one of my New Year's resolutions, and for a few months I tried to stick with it. I added four new groups to my reader, and promptly hated my decision. After I started reading the forums, I fell even further behind on my review commitments and spent far too much time swearing at authors who will never know I scorned them. But the other day, I finally figured out a reason to really like reading the forums. I now know why this isn't the biggest possible waste of my time, or yours.

What I've Learned

I've made no secret of my forums frustration. I think would-be authors ask too many questions when they ought to be researching. I see the same questions over and over again. I groan and complain and roll my eyes, but I also know (now) that forums do serve a purpose. 

Writing 101 Redux: Single or Double Spaces?

Do you type two spaces after a period, or just one? It's a subject of some debate among the writing community and editors of all kinds. If you want to know where I stand on the issue (and maybe you can already tell), you have to journey with me back to 2012 and the beginnings of the blog. 

For Throwback Thursday, we're going to re-visit double-spacing in books...and why I have such a strong opinion about it.

Lust and Love with 'Song of the Sea'

 "The YA fantasy genre needs more books of this kind."

"The story of Brenna‘s search for her mother is inspiring and relatable.The writing is fresh and crisp. As a reader, I just fell in love with the female protagonist."

My newest book, "Song of the Sea," has been reviewed at Booklust. Go take a look at it before you buy the book at Amazon!

Writing 101: The FANBOYS Grammar Hack

I'd like to tell you about a grammar hack, For all writers can benefit from using tricks, And I like to talk about grammar. I'm not an expert, Nor am I a teacher, But I don't want to make mistakes. It's either make them, Or learn how to use grammar. Anyone can learn this, Yet many still get it wrong. Don't be one of them. It's time for you to learn how to use the FANBOYS, So you can always get it right.

Let's Hear it for the Boys

FANBOYS are a group of coordinating conjunctions. They're special because they all follow the same grammar rule. Do you know what it is? Read the first paragraph again to see if you can figure it out. 

Writing 101: Adjectives and Commas

One of the first lessons you learn in school is to put a comma between your adjectives, just like I'm doing when I say I'm truly, madly, deeply in love with commas. I'm lying, but at least I'm grammatically correct. But here's the problem: that lesson is wrong. You don't always put a comma between your adjectives. You only put them between coordinate adjectives. With cumulitive adjectives, you don't. Yes, I'm about to explain what that means. 

Little Brown Ball

You should always put commas between coordinate adjectives, which are descriptive words that are similar to each other. For example, if the painting is black, brown, blue and green, those adjectives coordinate because they're all colors. They all go together and fit in the same group. There is a simple way to test if adjectives are coordinating or not.

Writing 101: Decades Can't Be Possessive (Or, Why 1960's Is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong)

In all but the rarest of circumstances, the rules of grammar don't change. They stay the same all the time, for every word. This is why its so very confusing when people make decades possessive. If you write 1970's or 60's anywhere, for any reason, you are wrong. And I'm here today to tell you how to be right.

Apostrophe S

I cant seem to stress it enough: apostrophe s is there to show possession. This is Jade's blog. I'm using Blogspot's software.

Because the blog belongs to Jade, it's Jade's. The apostrophe s shows possession. And a decade can't possess something, can it?

Song of the Sea: Look Inside

I always knew my mother was unhappy. I just didn’t know why.

I don’t really know when I realized she wasn’t happy. When I look back at my childhood, all I can remember of her is long, black hair blowing in the wind as she stood on the deck of our house. She spent most of her time staring at the ocean with a sad expression on her face. The ocean was all around us, and it was the center of our world. It surrounded the tiny island where we lived (Matinicus, Maine. Population: 54), forcing us to contend with the water if we wanted to visit the mainland. It was the source of all our income, and it has always felt like my best friend. It just didn’t occur to me, back then, that my mother was looking at it differently.

Our house sat on a high, rocky bluff that overlooked the narrow strip of beach where our boathouse stood. Every day, my dad took the boat out on the water. He was a fisherman, and that’s actually how he and my mother met. She was in a terrible boating accident and very nearly drowned. My father came bouncing along the waves in his Boston Whaler and scooped her right out of a blow-up life raft.

It was such a romantic story, but the drama of almost drowning severely affected my mother. Since that day, she never went on a boat or in the water again. I often wondered if she was remembering her accident, those times I caught her staring at the gray waves of the North Atlantic Ocean.

I, too, was fascinated by the ocean, always had been. I think I could swim before I could walk. My dad once told me more than seventy percent of the Earth is the oceans. They connect everything to everything else. They link the continents, rivers, all the other oceans. And here’s the interesting part: most of the ocean floor is still undiscovered, unmapped. Unexplored. Scientists guess at all the different life forms which might exist in the ocean—but they don’t really know.

It is a liquid land filled with secrets and mysteries, and I wanted to discover them all. Looking back, maybe I was always interested in the water because I wanted to know why my mother found it so fascinating. Maybe I should have stayed on that small strip of beach.

But I didn’t. I went on a journey to find my mother…and somewhere along the way, I found myself instead. 

Get it at Amazon, Smashwords or Kobo.

Writing 101: Of Course, Comma

Commas are so confusing, I and just about every author who blogs about writing has tried to sort them out. I've written multiple posts about how to use commas, and when, and why not. But sometimes, you have to forget about all those rules. Some phrases are so special, they come with their own personal comma rules. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it... 

Of Course You Need a Comma There

I get hung up on little punctuation rules all the time. Of course, there's a lot of them to remember. But I found myself asking, several times, whether or not I was required to use a comma every time I use the phrase of course. It's confusing, because the phrase can be used in a multitude of ways. 

Writing 101: Speed

After you publish a book, you've got to start immediately thinking about publishing your next book. You've got to keep publishing, even though you have to worry about promoting and editing and making trailers and maintaining you day job, too. When it comes to being an indie, how important is speed? 

How Fast Can You Publish?

Some of the most successful self-published authors don't just put books out there. They put a lot of books out there very quickly. They make money by constantly offering something new to their fan bases. They make money with speed. What if you can't keep up? 

Writing 101: Keywords and Social Media

If you're not using keywords with your social media, you're missing out on some of your audience. Start expanding your Twitter reach by choosing the right words. 

The Right Words

Use keywords to find your target audience on Twitter. Social media is a great tool for targeting the right readers, but only if you know how to use it. You can't wait for your readers to come to you, because how do they know you exist? You've got to seek them out. And like any writer, you should use the most powerful tool at your disposal: words. 

Writing 101: Who are You Writing To?

When you're  writing, how often do you think about the reader? If you don't  know who you're  writing to, you're  not writing at your best.

Playing to the Audience

Have you ever been on a stage? If you perform for a crowd, you'll be told to play to the very back of the room. This way, the entire audience will feel included on your performance. Writing is sort of like that, too.

How I Spent My Year

It's January 1, and we all know what that means: I've got to write a New Year's-themed blog post. The year flew by. But weirdly, so many things happened that it also feels like it was much more than just one year. So this year, I'm writing my annual blog post about how I spent the year. 

Two Thousand and Fourteen...Million Words

The year 2014 started for me much as 2013 did. I'd just published a new book, Hope's Rebellion, and I started blogging all the writing tips I'd learned through the year. Then came July, and a ton of changes.

Writing and Drinking

There's an entire school of thought that certain substance abuse doesn't hinder your mind, it frees it. If you get drunk enough, you'll be open to all sorts of new ideas and imaginings. You may even finally get over that writer's block and figure out the ending of your book. 

This a school of thought that was clearly developed by someone who was actually drunk at the time. Writing and drinking do not mix, and I don't care how many famous authors have said that they do. 

Alcohol 

It's pretty much common knowledge that Mark Twain liked to drink. Hemingway famously drank all the time. Edgar Allen Poe and F. Scott Fitzgerald both liked to his the sauce, and let's not even talk about Hunter S. Thompson. There are so many authors who were known for drinking just in America, NPR did a whole show about it. And now they're all dead. 

Writing 101: You Need to Change Your Twitter Photos

If you're trying to be an indie author, the first thing you need to do is change your Twitter photo. Do not take a picture of yourself with a webcam. Do not scan your High School yearbook photo. Take a nice head shot. Otherwise, you could wind up looking at me with googly eyes while I'm trying to enjoy social media. 

Michele Bachmann Eyes

Always double- and triple-check your photos before you upload them to Twitter. Have a picture of your face taken by someone who likes you. Look at yourself in the mirror and practice your author pose. If you don't do this, you could end up with Michele Bachmann face. Don't have  profile that looks like this picture of Jon Stewart. He's making fun of Michele Bachmann here, but I see people on Twitter who look like this all the time.

Writing 101: Spell Check is Ruining My Life

I always thought that automatic spell check was one of the greatest inventions of modern man. I thought that until about a week ago, when I realized all at once that spell check has actually ruined me as a writer. This is a cautionary tale to warn you about how spell check may also be ruining you. Please, proceed with care.

How Do I Hate Thee

It happened just the other day. I had cut-and-pasted something from Word into Google Drive, or vice versa. It doesn't really matter. The point is, I was proofreading what I'd just written. I didn't realize that spell check hadn't yet kicked in. 

Writing 101: Can You Always Come Last?

I've said this several different times, and in a few different ways, but here it is: it's really, really hard to be a writer. It's hard in ways you won't think of and hard in ways you can't even imagine. It doesn't get easier. And even if you still want to do it after reading that, and I know you do, you have to ask yourself a question: can you always come last? Because when you are a writer, you probably will. 

From Hero to Zero

Even if you don't use an entirely different pen name, like I do, you have to create an entire new persona when you're in author mode. You can't put all your opinions out there on social media, you have to stay polite and professional even when someone is coming at you with criticism, and above all you've got to keep writing. You have to write, and you have to research. You have to edit. And of course, you've got to promote. Then you've got to make the cover, and the trailer, and write a blurb... 

In other words, you -- the real you -- is going to come last. And you're going to come last all the time.