Compulsion Trailer - cant wait to read this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afli_Tq34dc&feature=youtu.be

Go here http://www.adventuresinyapublishing.com/2014/12/book-boyfriends-alpha-males-and-danger.html to enter the giveaway. Don't wait too long!

Merry Christmas to all

Just sending holiday greetings and good wishes to everyone. I'm taking these glorious days off to write, daydream, read, and write more. Hope the season gives you oodles of inspiration!.

!!!!. is all i can manage at the moment. :):):) whew!

In which I come up for air

It's been..well..a while since I've blogged. So this is a short and sweet post while in between life, kids, reading...and writing. Ive come to the point in my manuscript that I'm tearing it apart like an animal left without food for months. I'm being merciless and it's both gratifying and sobering. My outline, (which I believe has saved me numerous times from veering away from the story), and my synopsis are in the process of being completed. What a task......But worth every minute I spend doing it. I can picture my book on the shelf at the BAM store up the road. I can see myself signing it, talking about it to strangers..you know...be the ball and all that. So, that's the progress update. I have all the good intentions of paying more attention to my blog, but you know what they say about good intentions.....



Keep writing, its what your meant to do.

Crafting the flow of a story

I recently read a book that sat with me for days after I closed the cover. I realized that the flow of the story was so eloquent, so streamlined, that I was pulled in and followed along without any 'hesitation. I didn't even skim...(which I'm guilty of doing). I recall some great advice from Elmore Leonard, his "10 Rules For Good Writing."

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

"My most important rule is one that sums up the 10," he wrote. "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

*Excerpted from the New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle”

So i sit at my keyboard today with that advice in mind. A story can only be as good as the writing allows. Allow it to flow, smooth and effortless to the reader, all the way to the end.

--SC

The art of preparation

The art of writing is not just sitting at the keyboard or writing in a journal. It's daydreaming, staring into an open sky, or your surroundings. Listening to music, watching a really really good movie. Its all these things. Inspiration has come to me while watching commercials on tv...yes, it has. So feed your brain, give it more and more. Look at everything in a different way, the trees around you, interactions of passersby. All of this observation and inner reflection is fuel for your writing muse.

What i find helps me is sitting outside in the evening, listening to the wrapping up of the day around me. And watching the light dim as the minutes tick past. Then the night comes, which brings the mind to a different and more introspective place. You'd be amazed what you can think of, and work out sitting alone and letting go of logical thought.

Try it, you might surprise yourself. :)

WRITE every day, READ just as much, WRITE more.