by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
This month, I committed to writing 50,000 words. Kind of my own personal NaNo, since NaNo takes place in November and that so doesn’t work for me.I decided to work on the manuscript my agent was currently pitching, called Something Borrowed.Between October 1st...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 19, 2010 | Uncategorized
Last Thursday, I wrote a very frustrated post about flat, whiny characters. In it, I also briefly ranted about characters who won’t just OPEN THEIR MOUTHS AND TALK TO EACH OTHER.Okay, I’m done yelling. Sorry. It’s a touchy subject for me because...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 14, 2010 | Uncategorized
Please.Please, please, please.Everyone get out your manuscripts right now. Please make sure your main character is doing something to solve their problems. I don’t care whether or not they’re going about it in a good way. All I care about is that...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 12, 2010 | Uncategorized
A writer e-mailed me to ask, “How do you handle self-doubt and make yourself write?”Some days I don’t. Um, particularly in 2007 when it was rejection after rejection. Followed by more rejection. And then rejection that came completely out of the blue...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 7, 2010 | Uncategorized
On my author blog this month, I’m asking authors how they achieved their dream of being published. Everyone so far has said some form of “perseverance.” And I’m guessing if we polled 100 authors, they’d say the same thing.People who get...
by Stephanie Morrill | Oct 5, 2010 | Uncategorized
In response to a post of mine about main characters, a writer asked me, “How do you make an unreliable main character reliable enough for the reader to trust … without losing what makes the character who she is?”Yes, very tricky stuff.I was in an...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 30, 2010 | Uncategorized
A writer e-mailed me to ask, “What are your favorite books and why?”Holy cow, what a huge question.Since I don’t have time to spend hours writing this blog post, and since you probably don’t care to read my entire answer, I’m going to...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
On my author blog, I’m hosting 10 authors (who are generously giving away their books to those who comment on the posts) in the next 5 weeks.Why?Because I love being able to spread the word about available reading material.Because so many bloggers hosted me for...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 23, 2010 | Uncategorized
My husband and I have been watching the show Mad Men. We’re woefully behind – just now on season two. A couple nights ago, we reached an episode that had the best ever moment in the whole series. And I’d say it’s even one of the best moments...
by Stephanie Morrill | Sep 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
Mary Q. of Kansas City, MO wrote to me with the following writing tip. She says it’s helped her to turn off her internal editor.Mary says:This quarter I’m writing a poem, so for my assignment Ms. Hodge assigned me an exercise of writing non-stop for ten...
