Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. (For more information, see last week’s intro post.) This week, I’ll discuss The Big Idea. So you’re ready to write a novel. You’ve got a character, maybe a scene, a vague idea of the plot…you’re ready to sit down and start writing, right? … Continue reading Master Your Craft: The Big Idea
The last month has been an exciting time here at The Winged Pen as Pennies have been hard at work behind the scenes coming up with a surprise for you. Today, to coincide with Camp NaNo – the virtual writer’s retreat that helps you fit writing into your busy life – we’re excited to launch our new blog series: Master Your Craft with the Winged … Continue reading Introducing Master Your Craft: A New Series by the Winged Pen
We received a free copy of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s The Urban Settings Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces in exchange for an honest review. Since we’re fans of their Emotion Thesaurus as well as their thesauri of positive and negative character trains, we were excited to dive in. (See our review of the other books here.) The Urban Setting Thesaurus is a wonderful resource for a … Continue reading Using Setting to Create a Three-Dimensional World for Your Story: THE URBAN SETTING THESAURUS
In How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way To Improve Any Manuscript, James Scott Bell promises the reader craft secrets to shape great dialogue. As a writer juggling a full life, the phrase “fastest way to improve” catches my eye and I hit Amazon’s buy now button. When the book arrives, it’s a slim 135 pages. Was it worth the price? Will it stay … Continue reading Review – How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way To Improve Any Manuscript
If Pitch Wars 2017 seems too far away or too selective for you, you can always try out other mentorship programs available online. Some are free and some come with a fee. I have listed both below. But first…. What should you expect from a mentor? A mentor is a professional who is ahead of the game and understands the industry better than you. By … Continue reading Find Mentors after Pitch Wars?
If you read Julie’s post, you know it’s National Novel Writing Month again, which means a whole bunch of us are sweating through each day trying to write 50,000-ish words by the end of November. While I’m not participating this year, I am still trying to keep up my own momentum on my current WIP. But time has been so very tight for me this … Continue reading Ready… Set… WRITE!
If you suffer from writer’s block, you’re not alone. Most writers I know have faced that wall many times and surmounted it. Some people find themselves at that wall over and over again. Sometimes this happens because you’re not sure how to move your story forward. Sometimes this happens because you’re terrified of failing. If it’s the latter, you may be a perfectionist. One understanding … Continue reading Perfectionism and Pomodori
After being almost completely disconnected for ten days this summer, I found it a bit jarring once I returned to my normal online-heavy life. I’m deep into drafting at the moment, and all that “noise” has been wreaking havoc with my ability to focus. Hearing about others’ progress, chasing the link to yet another craft article or agent’s wishlist, or just keeping up with the … Continue reading Going Dark: How Do You Tune Out Online “Noise”?
If you are a writer, you will need a handful of special cards to throw upon your work area. Your set pieces are the cards you need to unearth and reveal before your story can end and you can go home, so to speak. A set piece is a screenwriting term, which means a fundamental scene or event in the story that you cannot remove. … Continue reading Throw in Your Set Pieces
In a previous Killer KidLit First Lines post (click here to read), I revealed my obsession with revising first lines. I’m almost equally obsessed with writing a banned book (I’m a rogue at heart), or winning the Newbery. Either way, I’m happy. The idea for this quiz came to me after the January American Library Association award announcements. I wondered, “Can you identify books … Continue reading Award Winning KidLit: First Lines Quiz
Recently, two of our Winged Pen members attended the SCBWI Oregon Conference. We sat down with them to talk about what they learned. What was the most inspirational moment of the conference for you? Richelle: Lately, I’ve been focusing on the joy of following my own quirky path – in writing and in life. So I was very inspired by Victoria Jamieson’s keynote, which was … Continue reading Fear, Fan-girling and Flambé: SCBWI Oregon Conference Recap
I love character motivation! When done right, it gives stories depth and texture and makes the characters seem like real people. I also hate character motivation! Sometimes I just want to get my characters from point A to point B in my story without having to worry about why. But if you want to write books with characters that people hate to part with, then … Continue reading Untangling Your Characters
