Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 48,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

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How to Survive Rejection

Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by John Kerr, @themaltesetiger 

Can we talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald? Author of The Great Gatsby, that American classic we all read in high school. Without a doubt, one of the most acclaimed American writers in history. But, did you know that his follow-up novel, Tender is the Night, was panned by critics?

The book was so ridiculed that Fitzgerald was driven out of the literary world. He fled to Los Angeles looking for success as a screenwriter but found none. Once thought of as a rising star, Fitzgerald was considered a has-been by the end of his career. He died believing he was a failure.

But he was wrong, and today we celebrate him as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Which brings me to my point-

Rejection happens to all of us.

Add it to the column under Death and Taxes. You can’t let it cripple you, though. You must learn from it, and move on. But, how do you move on from something that can feel so personal and cut so deep?

Well, that’s what I’m going to talk about. So, here are a few tips on…Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 48,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

Continue reading

End Your Story Well to Sell

Writing Tips

by Zoe M. McCarthy, @ZoeMMcCarthy

If you don’t backload a satisfying ending to your story, readers may not buy your next book.

We’ll look at tips for a satisfying ending scene(s). When I say ending scene, I don’t mean an epilogue.

Tips for a Satisfying Ending*

Tip 1: Don’t Rush the Ending

The reader will feel like the author wrapped up everything quickly to meet a deadline.

In a romance, you might be tempted to hurry the heroine to agree to an engagement or say “I do,” at the altar. Perhaps you could slow the ending down by wrapping up a minor subplot. Maybe the heroine has wanted a place to call home since the beginning. Without belaboring the ending, maybe you could bring this idea full circle before or after promises of love.

Tip 2: Don’t End in a Flurry of Conflicts and High Emotions

Cutting off the story when actions and emotions are intense is like characters sprinting to a cliff with bad men in pursuit and the reader turns the page to find “The End.”

Readers need to come down from the emotional frenzy and witness what the characters feel and do when they’re in their more normal state. In a legal thriller, after a highly emotional court drama and verdict play out, a short scene occurring on the next day might follow. Over breakfast in a diner, the defending lawyer shares with the released defendant how at the last moment he obtained the one piece of evidence that saved the defendant’s life.Continue reading

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