Planster 4 Lyfe
Sorry friends for the late post. I have two writing projects due this week so everything takes a backseat. There are three types of writers: plotters, pansters, and plansters. A plotter plots out their stories, pansters write by the seat of their pants, and plansters are a combination of both. I’m a planster. In the […]
Writing Diverse Characters
One of my writing groups has a weekly craft talk where we vote on a topic. This week it was on writing diverse and inclusive characters. Instead of writing a screed, I thought a bullet point list might be more useful. If you want to write a characters that is nothing like you whether it […]
Why Research is Important: Where to Research
In Part One of this series, because who knows, I may do more, I discussed readers tend to catch, very easily, when an author doesn’t do research. In some cases, it can be jarring and takes away from the story. And honestly? It’s lazy ass writing. Since I am a librarian by training (and career […]
Why Research is Important: A Study in Contrasts
I’m a big fan of research. I mean, I even got a degree in it. Thus, it really drives me crazy when I’m reading a book and it’s clear that there was little to no research was done. Here is a contrast of what I mean: A women’s fiction book I read last week featured the […]
Representation in stories matters
“Write what you want to read,” they said. So I am. In Ruby Hart Takes a Picture mystery series, I imagined an aging (nearing 40) actress who knew her time on the stage was not going to last much longer and she needed to make a mid-life career change. I put her in the Edwardian […]
Writing those sex (sweet, spicy, erotica) scenes
Sex scenes can be closed door to sweet to spicy to erotica. Closed door is when the hero and heroine link hands, meander to the bedroom, and the chapter ends. Next chapter is the morning after. Sweet romance is where a description of a kiss happens with a bit more oomph; nothing overtly sexual. Spicy […]
Introducing Scarlet
Scarlet MacKenzie came about a few years ago for several reasons. First, my government name has a long storied history keeping an online journal since 1998 and more recently a newsletter where I write weekly on my life and there is no theme or specific topic. Plus just regular life is attached to that name. […]