The Most Important Thing to Know About Your Character!

  Stories need interesting characters and there is one thing you must know about your character before you put a word on the page: What does he/she want more than anything? If you know the answer to that question before you begin, the emotion behind the answer will drive your character (and your story) forward. Think about your favorite movie or book. Chances are you will see how the protagonist’s yearning moved the story forward from the beginning to the end. P. S. I’m booking work for February now. If  you are interested in a manuscript critique or my editing services, please contact me. I’d love to read your work.

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Writing Retreat and Class in Sleepy Eye, MN

Fiction author, Candace Simar, and Literary Publicist and Marketing Consultant, Krista Soukup, will join me in Sleepy Eye at the W. W. Smith Bed & Breakfast during the weekend of October 18-20, 2013, to present “Writing at the B&B.” The retreat will begin on Friday evening (Oct. 18) with appetizers and a session on “Writing Great Beginnings for Your Prose.” Saturday morning, after breakfast in the formal dining room, we’ll be talking about “Writing Without Cliche” and later, “Killing the Passive Voice.” In the evening, Krista will present a special session for writers titled “Marketing for Writers.” Candace and I will wrap the weekend up on Sunday morning (after another gourmet...

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Those Annoying Exclamation Points!

I just read a blog post by Rachelle Gardner that summed up my feelings about exclamation points. In most cases, they are unnecessary and annoying. Rachele recommends writers eliminate all of them and I feel the same way. Before sending your manuscript out for publication, find and eliminate those pesky exclamation points. In e-mails and personal correspondence, use them freely! Isn’t that good news?! Here’s Rachele’s post: http://www.rachellegardner.com/2013/07/those-annoying-exclamation-points/

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