I really wanted to title this “Conquer Dialogue Punctuation, PLEASE!” but thought it might be a bit much. It’s not easy. Let’s all admit that. No one is born knowing how. And writers have all kinds of excuses for struggling …
What to Leave Out
Are you writing a book proposal? Have you included everything an agent or editor might need? Great. Have you gone through to make sure you have left out the parts an editor or agent won’t want or need to see?…
When Life Gets in the Way
I posted the basic concept of this article a few years ago. In revisiting it, I found it at least as true now as it was then, if not more so. You may have observed something similar.
Life gets in …
Writer Hacks
If you want to write faster, or with more emotion on the page, or more compellingly, or without losing track of who’s who, or losing your mind, you may need a writer hack.
A quick online search will reveal hacks …
Five Ways to Wrangle Dialect
I almost stopped reading the book that eventually opened my eyes to the power of inspirational fiction and set me on a path to author and agent. Almost set the book aside after a few pages.
Why? Because the dialect …
What Washed Ashore in the Storm
I’m married to a man who once despised brainstorming. He calls himself a non-writer. I disagree, but that’s a story for another time. Somehow, he’d become convinced that brainstorm was a word on a par with earthquake or tsunami or …
While You Wait
Blogger: Cynthia Ruchti
What’s waiting got to do with writing? Sure, the two words share many of the same letters, but writing is an action verb and waiting isn’t. Right?
Writing and waiting have a lot in common. Few beginning …
Testing the Website Waters
blogger: Cynthia Ruchti
Have you been regularly testing the website waters to make sure your author website is doing its job well?
We’re not talking Google Analytics or SEO or meta-data and keywords for this round of testing. Instead, we’re …
The Tragedy of Comedy
Cynthia Ruchti
You deliver the punch line of your best joke ever. Someone in your circle of friends says, “I don’t get it.”
And thus is the tragedy of comedy. It doesn’t always work. Because the joke was poorly delivered? …
Hearing from Audiobooks
Popularity of audiobooks is unquestionably on the rise. Our love for being read to might have begun in childhood, but it’s seen a resurgence in recent years. More traditional publishers are coordinating release of an audio version on or near …