Exploring Your Inner Voice

Humorous.  Dark.  Vivid.  Lively.  Melancholic. 
It’s quite possible you have a touch of all these styles.  Good.  I certainly believe in being well-rounded when it comes to voice.  However, sometimes nailing your “voice” is tough. 
I struggle with it a lot in my book length manuscripts–struggle to the point where there are days I convince myself that [...]

Weekend Art and Music

My sister is on her way with movies and wine. Yay!  Had a rough writing day so I’m looking forward to the break. 
The words were stuck.  I’m not talking glue stuck, I’m talking roots and all.  Damn, stubborn things.  So, I plan to work tomorrow since I’m playing tonight and since it would benefit me [...]

Research Good. Research Bad.

Sorry for the silence.  I have a plot line that is taking a little more research than I anticipated so I’ve been bogged down trying to get it all done and still get some sort of word count.  Thank goodness I decided to give up my Lone Ranger JANO and extend my personal deadline to [...]

Attainable Magic

Last week, I talked about setting and typing up parts of a favorite book to better understand the flow of words.  One of the Snarky readers, Word Doctor, agreed that it’s a great way to study mechanics. 
There is another plus to this practice.
Have you ever picked up a book and been utterly enchanted by the [...]

Nice Costume

Ever feel like you’re getting sick but you never quite get there?  Like you have half a cold?  I’ve felt like that all day, actually for close to a week now.  It’s just that today was worse.  It’s probably from fatigue.  I keep waking in the middle of the night thinking I’ve forgotten something or [...]

Weekend Music and Art

Can you all let me know if the blog looks off?  Do you still have all the color or is it all white?  For some reason, half the time I pull it up today, it’s not right.
Right now, I’m enjoying the mellow and lovely sounds of Saxon Shore.  Click here to listen to Secret Fire, [...]

Post Its, Pulling Teeth and Protective Daddies

For details about how this works, visit Rachel Vincent’s blog.
I hit a plot bump around chapter nine on my WIP, so I decided to give Rachel’s plot board a try.  It’s intense work, but strangely fun and satisfying as well.
Okay, it freaking rocks!
I’m visual.  Out-of-sight, out-of-mind is how it works in the Rinda brain.  I [...]

Cold, Hard Truth

Giving up on a difficult piece and moving on is easy.  Sure, you may feel a slight, skulking guilt in low places, but you can ignore it, right?
Not really.
Trust me–I speak from experience.  Yes, there are times when a piece just isn’t going to work.  But most of the time, it just ‘needs’ work.  It’s damned [...]

Want It To ‘Feel’ Real?

The setting is important.  In fact, without it, you have nothing but characters moving around in boring space.  Now, when I first write something, that’s pretty much all I get.  A little snappy dialogue if I’m lucky, an idea of what they look like and boring tags like smiled, nodded and smirked.  Not a lot of [...]

Don’t Let the Murky Bottom Hold You Back

Note: I’ve added a new page at the top called Current Scene FA Pic.  A handy place to check the current photo for writing as well as the deadline.  Yes, I put in a deadline.  Not for pressure– no.  My purpose was to alleviate pressure so you know how long you can let a photo [...]

How Do You Draft?

My email isn’t working, so don’t get alarmed if you haven’t received a response from me.  Phones have been seriously iffy, too.  It’s not just the connection either.  I have a teenager who leaves the phones off until they’re dead.  Recharging isn’t cutting it right now.  I finally put in a phone with a cord.  [...]