Making Your Characters Suffer is the Best Part
My job as the author of the Gabby Wells Thriller series is to make Gabby’s life a living hell. And I do, relentlessly. That’s what every author is supposed to do. To torture the protagonist so you can torture the Read more…
Time Compression
This happens to me a lot. When I outline my book where the climax takes place at a certain place/time, I backtrack and plot when the things leading up to it should happen. Invariably, as I write the actual story, Read more…
The Cost of Independent Publishing
Independent publishing is substantially cheaper than its ever been. With Amazon and other distributors offering to distribute your ebook for a small fee and print your print book on-demand with nearly zero up front costs, publishing your book on your Read more…
The Ampersand Dilemma
Now that we’re turning the novellas into novels, we’ll have to change some of the titles. Here’s why. The original titles of the five books included an ampersand. The first two are Water & Blood and Shadows & Lies. For Read more…
Writing as a Business
Whether you are independently published or traditionally published, the majority of the ownership for your success falls on your shoulders. It is up to the author to write good stuff, build a fan base, establish beta readers and street teams Read more…
Word Count and Wreaking Havoc
Been very efficient this past week, typing out over 12,000 words. I’m nearing the end of the first draft of Lost & Found and I must say I’ve really enjoyed putting Gabby through hell. Writers have an odd relationship with Read more…
Writing is a Lot Like Golf… or an Ex-Girlfriend
Writing is a lot like golf. It only takes one good swing to keep you hacking away for another 18 holes. While working on the first draft of Lost & Found I inadvertently setup a really awesome situation. The options Read more…
Word Count and 50,000
Plotting out Lost & Found has really come in handy. In a week I’ve written nearly 8,000 words. The story is humming along. I’m about half-way through, so it should end up in the 30,000 – 40,000 range, like the Read more…
Wordcount and Writing Backwards
I’ve been chugging along slowly, but surely. Mostly slowly. I was able to draft almost 7500 words on the Lost & Found novella before I slowed things down. I realized that I knew the end of the story, but some Read more…
Pressure
Something important occurred to me this weekend. Something that placed a crap ton of pressure on me. As I fleshed out the plot for the second novella, Lost & Found, I realized it is the single most important book in Read more…
^