Jade Varden Official Blog

It's not easy to write something great. It's not even easy to write something that no one will want to read. There's a misconception that writers simply lounge around with tape recorders and laptops all day, busily typing away without cease. That's not what it's like. It's emotionally exhausting to write, and you can sweat for four hours and complete a single page of text. There's one great enemy that can make it impossible for you to write to your best capability. Do you know what it is...and how to defeat it? Music Playlist at MixPod.com Fear If you're a writer, your greatest enemy is fear . Lots of writers have been battered, maybe even a little damaged, by criticism and rejection . It's easy to second-guess your writing, to stop writing and read what you've just done...and hate it. You might start thinking about how readers will react, how literary agents will react, how publishers might react. What will the reviewers say? Wi...

Writers are supposed to be in their own heads a little bit. You have to completely immerse yourself in the world you're inventing in order to write it properly, don't you? But you've got to step outside of that world every once in a while, and into someone else's. What are you reading right now....and are you reading for you, or to improve your writing?  Reading and Writing Lots of writers also enjoy reading. Many authors have been inspired by other authors. I have a few particular favorites, myself. But you shouldn't necessarily be reading those authors that you love -- at least, not all of the time. Some of the time, you've got to read in order to improve your writing. You've also got to read to make sure you're writing within your own genre, and that you're marketing toward the right audience . Think of it as reconnaissance. If you're writing YA books, shouldn't you be reading other YA books to see what's happening in the ...

How good is Bram Stoker's novel Dracula ? So good, kids are still dressing up like his main character more than 100 years later. The novel was originally written in 1897, but it's come to life many times since then. The Book We're celebrating scary books this October, but Dracula is about a lot more than cheap thrills. The book touches upon the role of women in Victorian society, sex, even immigration (still a hot-button issue in some countries). Bram Stoker wasn't the very first author to write about vampires, but he's famous for bringing the vampire into the modern world.  It's one of the most-adapted novels ever written. It's been around long enough to be adapted for the stage and the screen many, many times over. Dracula centers around a title character who is quite thoroughly undead, though many protagonists help to tell the story through diaries, letters, newspaper clippings and ship logs. Dracula is the title character and ...

"Jade Varden really has a way with bringing her story to life, I could easily picture everything that was happening and I was never bored."  "You really can't go wrong, especially if you're looking for a quick, light YA read filled with intrigue and mystery." Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at Panda Reads and approved for even non-bear readers.  Visit the blog to read the whole thing, and find out which well-known author the reviewer compared me to!

It is the job of all authors to bring their characters to life. Most well-loved characters have a distinct look, noticeable characteristics, great flaws and strengths. Some authors even take things one step further, and create a distinct style for their leading ladies. To honor some of the great fiction fashion icons that I've read over the years, I'm introducing a new feature with one of my most favorite characters: Cathy Dollanganger. Fashionable Femme Fatale  Cathy Dollanganger is the main protagonist of the Dollanganger series, which spanned five books. The series was introduced in a debut novel from V.C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic . It became an instant hit, though the movie didn't fare quite so well, and launched a career that has, phenomenonally, continued with new novels even beyond the author's death.   It all began with Cathy. Through the series, she goes from age 9 to age 59 (or thereabouts), and that's a whole lot of clothes. For some s...

Writing in the first person takes a lot of skill. When it's done well, it can really bring the main character and the story to life. Readers will truly feel and think like that character, truly live inside your fictional world. But when it's done badly, your writing will feel distracting, confusing...and sometimes, even silly.  It's My World, You're Just Reading in It  Writing in the first person takes a very delicate hand. You don't want to over-load the book with "I." It gets boring when every sentence or paragraph starts out that way, and the last thing you want to create in your writing is repetition. You have to make sure you describe the character to the audience somehow, and that's tricky. You have to remember to see everything through the character's eyes; they probably can't read minds or hear thoughts, so they have to rely on observation alone to figure out what's going on.  But you also have to remember something e...

Ever told someone about a song you like, and they didn't recognize it, so you had to sing a few lines? Ever mention a great line you heard on that TV show you love? Ever told a friend what another friend said about them, word for word? Yeah, there are lots of reasons why you might need to use quotes within quotes when you're writing. Don't ignore the simple punctuation rules that dictate exactly how you're allowed to do it.  Double Punctuation, and Other Disasters Lots of things have to be enclosed in quotation marks when you're writing. Proper titles of magazine articles, exact quotes, clever nicknames, popular sayings -- you might use quotes around all that stuff. But if you're already using quotes because you're mentioning these things in dialogue, then you've got to use a form of double punctuation: quotes within quotes. It's really easy to get them wrong. It doesn't help that there's a lot of confusion surrounding proper q...

Some of the greatest fiction characters ever written have wonderful monologues where they reveal some inner truth or meaningful plot point. Fancier folks might call the long-winded, solo speech known as the monologue a soliloquy instead, but it amounts to the same thing. One of the most famous monologues ever written begins with the phrase "to be, or not to be." Lots of authors want to write a great one, and use them to create dramatic scenes. But writing the monologue is an art form, and it's not something you should be doing at all lightly. Talking with Myself  The monologue is just a one-sided speech. A single character takes center stage, so to speak, to reveal something important. A monologue can be an actual speech that's being delivered to one or more characters, but some writers have their characters speak aloud to themselves. In the same vein, monologues can be internal speech -- the character "talking" to themselves inside their own thou...