Category Archives: Motivation

Monday Advice from Editors and Agents: Three Tips for the Price of One

Today’s three tips provide some dead-on great advice about Your VOICE PITCHing your book STRIKING THE HEART of your reader The advice comes from Chris Keeslar, who’s been a leading industry professional for over 20 years. Keeslar started editing romance for Dorchester Publishing, where … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Agent/Editor Pitch, Craft of Writing, Interior life; interiority, Motivation, Romance, Voice, Writing | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Words on Wednesday: The Emotion Thesaurus

Every good writer tries to “show not tell” character emotions. But even experienced authors may be limited in their familiarity with certain feelings. Extreme emotions such as anguish, desperation, paranoia, rage, and full-out terror may–thankfully–exist only in our fictional worlds. Enter the helpful … Continue reading

Posted in Character, Character arcs, Character-driven action, Characters, Conflict, Emotion Thesaurus, Interaction with Setting, Interior life; interiority, Motivation, Resources, Story Elements, Story ideas, Tips for Teen Writers, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Monday Advice from Editors and Agents: Motivate Your Characters’ Decisions

Today’s (one day late) advice comes from agent Peter Knapp of New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. Peter will be part of the faculty at the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Novel Workshop and Retreat, September 23-25, 2016 in Santa Cruz, CA. (Note: there will … Continue reading

Posted in Avoiding coincidence, Backstory, Backstory, Character-driven action, Character-driven action, Characters, Conflict, Contrived Plots, Craft of Writing, Editing, Foreshadowing, Mistakes and Consequences, Motivation, Pacific Coast Writers, Plotting, Resolutions, Revising, Stakes, Story Elements, Teaching Writing, Teen Authors, Teen writers, Teen writers, Workshops, Writers Conference, Writing, Young adults | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Monday Advice from Agents and Editors: Show me the reason why

Have you ever watched a really awful horror movie and wanted to scream at the protagonist–the one who chooses to go down alone into a dark cellar full of moaning and whimpering instead of calling 911–“Why on earth do you … Continue reading

Posted in Backstory, Character-driven action, Character-driven action, Characters, Foreshadowing, Interior life; interiority, Motivation, Swordfights, Writing, Young adults | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment