It’s every unpublished writer’s worst nightmare—browsing the bookstore shelves and discovering that someone else has written the same story you’ve sweated over for a year. Only they’ve written it faster. And—that obnoxious little voice tells you—they’ve probably written it better. You have two options. One: pretend you never saw it, then let the questions eat… Continue reading Your story, written by someone else
Tag: characters
Embrace your imaginary friend
Results of a study into children’s imaginary friends have recently been published, and apparently they’re not such a bad thing as people always thought. Funny thing is, as someone whose parents never made a big deal of my imaginary friends, it never occurred to me that they might be considered unhealthy. My imaginary friends were… Continue reading Embrace your imaginary friend
Writing in an accent that’s not yours
The first manuscript I wrote – First Aid for a Broken Heart – features an American heroine and a British hero. Throughout the story, I tried to make sure that Spencer doesn’t just speak like a Brit but thinks like one, while Caitlyn thinks and speaks like an American. Weirdly (considering I’m American), Spencer’s voice… Continue reading Writing in an accent that’s not yours
Do you want your fiction realistic, or real?
I met my husband in one of the world’s most romantic cities – Prague (Czech Republic, not Oklahoma). We were sitting in a smelly classroom at an English language school. When we introduced ourselves, I arched my brow (which he thought meant I had attitude) and he spoke with a deep voice and British accent.… Continue reading Do you want your fiction realistic, or real?
Describing how a man smells
One thing I hate to read about is a musky man – partly because it’s become hackneyed, and partly because the word conjures its original use. The musky scent in colognes used to come from a glandular secretion from near the musk deer’s rectum. According to Wikipedia, the word ‘musk’ originates from the Sanskrit for… Continue reading Describing how a man smells