On Writing – Page 8 – Liana Brooks

Archive by category "On Writing" (Page 8)

NaNoWriMo Boot Camp Day 1: Establish a Base Line

The best way to fail is to not prepare. You think you’re going to start NaNoWriMo November 1st with no preparation, no practice, and no prior thought? Well, honey, that’s just setting yourself up for failure. No worries, though. I am a certified* NaNoWriMo Boot Camp instructor. Every Tuesday and…

The Secret Handshake Of Publishing (a reprint)

Originally Posted On 10/15/14 Since the invention of the printing press there’s been a rumor that you need to know some secret to get your book published. There’s always this idea that it’s who you know, or that some magical phrase in your query letter will get your book a…

Editing

“Editing can’t be that hard,” said a well-meaning friend as I politely declined an invite to a weekend camping trip. I couldn’t go, I needed to finish the edits for DECOHERENCE. And editing isn’t easy. See all that red? That’s the opening chapters of DECOHERENCE during the first round of…

There are No Great Writers…

… only great re-writers. The sooner you accept that your first drafts will be steaming piles of squishy word vomit, the sooner you will be able to write the story you want to write. First drafts are nasty. They are disgusting. They make you want to curl up in a…

It Is A Truth Universally Acknowledge That All The Great Novels Have Subplots (a reprint)

Originally Posted 1/17/13 Forgive my abuse of beautiful Jane Austen quote, but it is the truth. Every bestseller out there that I’ve read (which does exclude a few with sparkling undead and men named Grey) have subplots. Think Dresden, LOTR, Price of the Stars, Lost Fleet, or any of the…

Yes, Virgina, You Need A Critique Group (a reprint)

Originally Posted On 2/5/13 Over the years I’ve taken a middle-of-the-road approach to critique groups. I waffled. I tried to see and accept opinions that I didn’t entirely agree with. And now I give up. You need a critique group before you publish. When you make the choice to move…

The Strange Emptiness of Success

You wouldn’t think there was a sadness attached to success. There should be elation. Perhaps celebration. There should be parades, and trumpets, joy! But as I clean my desk tonight and tuck away the notes and scraps and post-is associated with DECOHERENCE I realize I’m burying the corpse of Jane…

Note To Self – a post by Amy Laurens

This is post is shamelessly stolen (with Amy’s belated permission) from www.AmyLaurens.com Dear Self, Here’s the thing. You’ve been waffling back and forth over this thing called writing for a long time now, and really, we’ve all had just about enough. You say you want this, that it’s a life…

Where Mother Gothel Went Wrong

Mother Gothel and Rapunzel from the Disney movie Tangled. The Disney movie TANGLED came out in 2010 and at this point I feel it’s fair to say Mother Gothel is the dumbest villain ever added to the villain pantheon. Not the bumblingest or the silliest or even the least frightening,…

The Unexpected Book Deal

This is the post I never thought I’d get to write. Back in July I spent five hours skyping my crit partner in Australia and sobbing about how this book was dead. The very last agent had it and I was sure a rejection was imminent. Me weird, strange,…