What's a Twitter pitch party?
I've participated in a whopping two critique group sessions and one official meeting with my critique partner. Of course, as is now commonplace, despite my limited experience, I suddenly think I'm an expert. (Thanks Holiday Inn!)
I have never been particularly good at following the rules...
If you read my blog last week on NaNoWriMo, you already know I'm a newbie to this writing event. I didn't quite know what to expect when I started. It's now been one week (technically 8 days when I'm writing this). What have I learned so far? Anything?
Whether you're a writer or not, you've heard people say "write what you know." The idea is that you should stick to topics with which you have experience. I think that this advice is garbage.
I'm a daily blogger. Really, I blog every day. I do it because I love writing and thoughts and ideas. Still it does have it's challenges. One of which is figuring out what to blog about.
Author panels are meant for the audience to learn about authors and their books. But, the authors themselves can learn a few things too, like what they have in common.
On a recent trip to New York with my daughter for a dance trip, she took a Bollywood class with a very sagely instructor. (See story of that trip here.) I've been thinking about something that teacher said recently. The class was high energy and she told the girls to push through their fatigue. She explained to them that energy creates energy and if you stop when you're tired, it will be harder to stop again. She was basically explaining to them Newton's first law of motion, which describes inertia. But, this law doesn't just apply to physical objects. It's mental as well. And it often applies to writing.
Oh passive voice, the bane of my writing existence, along with idioms and the use of semicolons. (I actually despise semicolons. Just start a new sentence!) But that is a rant for another time. As a newly published author, I probably struggled with passive voice the most. And through those struggles, along with the help of some very seasoned book editors, I think I’ve learned enough about the topic to provide some helpful (and abbreviated, for those of you with busy schedules) advice.
K.L. Kranes 