When things seem at their worst, ask yourself one thing
No one gets through life without at least a few screw-ups. Some of them will be minor, some of them will be bona fide doozies.
I’m certainly no exception. My lists of flubs, oopsies, brain farts, minor catastrophes, sad losses, near heart attacks, pure bad luck, and total disasters is probably more or less the same length as anyone else’s.
Some examples include:
- Leaving my purse on a public bus right after someone had paid me back $200 in cash
- Setting half my kitchen on fire
- Working for a boss…
It’s a lot easier than you think, even with a full-time job
I make a living writing novels of anywhere from 65,000–95,000 words. It’s a fairly lucrative career, which in and of itself is decent enough motivation.
However, as any writer knows, it takes a lot more than motivation to keep writing, especially when it comes to finishing an entire book. Yet, I manage to complete a book in about thirty days once I start.
So How Do I Do it?
Fair warning, I’m a pantser, not a plotter. …
It’s perfectly okay to use adverbs
Jake was seriously pissed off.
A perfectly fine line, complete with an adverb — the horror!
Many an expert on writing, including the go-to guru for all advice seekers, Stephen King, will tell you that this is a sin in the art of writing. The crime supposedly committed in the above sentence is that the author is telling rather than showing the reader that Jake is angry.
These experts also caution that resorting to adverbs is a lazy way to avoid using your words. Done correctly, writing is supposed to allow the reader to…
Yes, they suck, but here’s how to deal
“This book was poop!” ~Goodreads Reviewer
Yes, that is an actual review of a book.
As an author myself, I can only imagine how the author of that book must have winced at reading such disgustingly harsh words. And that isn’t even the worst review I’ve seen.
As the saying goes, shit happens.
The good news is, the bigger a success you are as a writer, the more shit you are likely to get in the form of bad reviews, simply because more people are reading your work. Enjoy that silver lining.
That doesn’t make it any easier when you…
And how yours can too…maybe
Let me get the bad news out of the way first. Yes, it was a romance novel.
Before you click the back button out of immediate disinterest (disgust?), let me make it clear that I didn’t choose to write romance because I’m a huge fan of the genre. Romance is not my go-to when picking up fiction novels to read. I chose it because it is the most lucrative fiction genre to write in with a low barrier to entry.
And I wanted to make money.
That said, even writing in one of the most popular genres doesn’t guarantee a…
Adrienne Cobb
Six-Figure Author, Political Maven, Bon Vivant, Risk Taker, Dominatrix of the Written Word, and International Woman of Mystery.
