Jade Varden Official Blog

So, are your books just too long?  Read today's Throwback Writing 101 about going to extreme lengths to find out just how long too long really is.

I had to take a break after finishing a chapter in my first draft last weekend, and I realized that maybe, just maybe, I crossed a literary line. So now I’ve got to ask myself, how much blood is too much blood in a book?  Let’s Get Drenched A certain amount of violence is to be expected in certain types of stories. Can you imagine “The Princess Bride” without the exciting swordfighting? How’d you like to read the Harry Potter books without the wizard dueling? Or maybe you’d be jazzed to crack open a copy of “Divergent” without all the battle scenes and training? Of course not, there would be nothing left. So sometimes, a little bit of violence is required. Or even a lot. But plenty of books don’t get gruesome about it. That makes it tricky for other authors to find out where that line is located. Do you know where it’s at? http://jadevarden.blogspot.com/2013/12/writing-101-writing-responsibly.html

I’ve been vocal in my belief that writing is a skill that can be learned with practice, patience and hard work. It is hard work, though many envision something far different when they first pursue the writing dream. It takes a lot of research, editing and rewriting to come up with something decent, let alone great. But here’s the secret about writing: hard work doesn’t always pay off. Blood, Sweat and Tears Many authors will agree that often, luck and good connections play a part in success. If you are obsessed with learning about the backstories of authors , as I am, you will see this is a thread that’s repeated often. Many authors either a) got lucky or b) knew the right people. Of course, they were also talented and hard-working writers. But it’s also true that sometimes, hard work alone just isn’t enough.

I don’t know if my blog posts have accurately echoed my dismay, but lately I’ve been feeling a little bit like I want to run around outside screaming, or maybe take a trip to London to stand in that famous park and rant all day long. In some ways, I can understand the people who walk around putting up signs that warn about the upcoming end of the world. In short, I’ve been climbing walls and freaking out. And as long as I don’t do any of those weird things, I guess that’s okay...because Agatha Christie went a little crazy once, too. Well, maybe. Her Greatest Mystery For 11 days, the famous Queen of mystery novels went missing. Vanished. The year was 1926, the whole event was totally bizarre, and people have been trying to unravel this lingering mystery in all the decades since. 

This is a Jade’s blog exclusive look at Book 2 in the Saltwater Secrets trilogy. Book 1, Song of the Sea , is available in paperback and ebook now. The waves were the color of steel, flat and dark against the frozen air. The sky was gray, too, and the salt smell was almost overpowering. A storm was brewing, a big one. I walked just to the edge of the beach and stopped to stare up at the sky. “There you are. Finally.” “Nix?” I knelt down to speak to the bobbing woman who had just surfaced. “I thought I saw you earlier.” “You did.” Nixie heaved herself out of the water, swinging her tail around to flop it onto the sand. She was planning to stay for a long chat. When she was staying only briefly, Dylan’s sister stayed in the water. She gathered her wet hair at her neck and draped it over one shoulder to keep it from dripping on her drying tail. “I saw all the excitement and decided to wait,” Nixie finished her thought. We both looked out at the water while she flopped he...

Some say that prologues are the worst, but are they right?  Read this week's Throwback Thursday Writing 101 post to find out, and see how you feel about prologues at the end.

For the purposes of this post, let’s assume that you are not the author of “Gone With the Wind” or “Catcher in the Rye.” Let’s also assume you did not create the Harry Potter series. That leaves pretty much all the other authors out there. This is the group who lives with daily instability. And for those who are wondering, the answer is no. It’s not going away...well, unless you write the next Harry Potter, of course.  Tightrope For even established authors and writers, the writing game is a tightrope walk. There are pretty much two ways to make money as an author: write a few books that sell a whole lot of copies, or write a lot of books that sell a great many copies. If you’re not doing that, you’re not really making money. As a freelance writer, most of the time you’re going to need to have a lot of jobs that pay well (and a few that don’t really pay that well) just to make ends meet. And here’s the thing about both authors and writers: the rug can get pulled out from...

Recently, after many nights of struggle, I managed to finish the final chapter of the first draft of my next novel. But I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I finished the first draft, because I haven’t. For this particular book, I found there was really only one way I could write it and manage to get anything accomplished: sloppily. So I say to all you authors with ugly first drafts, welcome. We are as one. Building a Book Did you ever build a model of something for school? I was once tasked with creating a sculpture out of trash, an assignment that lots of people get that I personally think is in poor form. But my grades in Science were always questionable, so I made the sculpture. It was a telephone, because I’m a girl. I started by gluing the popsicle sticks together to create a flat base first. Later, I put together my bubble gum wrapper chain and cut a foam cup to make an ear and mouthpiece. I didn’t add the spray paint until it was all assembled, and it wasn’t until ...