posted by
Faith Hunter read all posts by
Faith Hunter 
A question was asked on magicalwords.net recently about why writing sometimes sounds amateurish. I spouted off with the answer as I saw it:
*(paraphrasing) my work looks amateurish.
The main and usual reason is that you are telling not showing. The second reason is loss of character voice.
Telling Ex: Chris was sweating, the day was muggy. The [...]
posted by
Misty Massey read all posts by
C E Murphy 
It was a tricky contest, and there were a lot of close guesses, but at the last minute, someone read the hints and pulled it out. So put your hands together, people, for our winner…. Beatriz!
She correctly guessed that it was Faith, David, Catie and Misty. Beatriz, I’ll get in touch offlist to [...]
posted by
Misty Massey read all posts by
C E Murphy 
It’s Friday! Woo hoo! In honor of getting to the weekend relatively unscathed, we at Magical Words are challenging you, our readers.
The four hosts of Magical Words were asked the following question:
“You’ve gone to the local coffee shop to indulge yourself for an hour. What do you order?”
Their answers are:
A. A large [...]
posted by
Misty Massey read all posts by
Misty Massey 
Just call me the Duchess of Deletion.
I started to blog about how it hurts to see one bad review even if forty-’leven other people have given your book raves. I decided I didn’t feel like being depressed about it, and I didn’t want people to think I was begging for sympathy. I erased that post.
I [...]
posted by
DavidBCoe read all posts by
David B. Coe 
Tomorrow I drive to Virginia — Charlottesville to be exact – where, on Friday, I’ll be a presenter at the Virginia Festival of the Book. It couldn’t come at a worse time, really. I’m revising one book and itching to start writing another. But this begins a stretch of festivals and conventions that will take me [...]
posted by
Catie Murphy read all posts by
C E Murphy 
I’m in the middle–and I do mean middle, as I’m 90K into what I’m beginning to be depressingly certain will be a 165K book–of writing my sixteenth full-length novel.
These are my observations at this point:
- this is the worst thing I’ve ever written
- none of it hangs together
- there is no integral structure
- the end [...]