Category Archives: Character Development

Links of the week #32

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It’s Saturday and time to review the treats from the week. SYTYCD was back in a Mia Michaels kind of way. I’ve picked a powerful performance for you and you’re not going to want to miss it.

Story

Jami Gold : Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Are These Characters the Perfect Match?

Grammar

Liz Bureman at The Write Practice : Do You Use Quotation Marks or Italics for Song and Album Titles?

Place Descriptions

Sharla Rae at Writers In The Storm : Place Descriptions: Waterways

Body Language / Character Development

Darcy Pattison at Fiction Notes : 10 Body Language Tricks for Deeper Characterization

Fight Scenes

Rayne Hall at Clarion Blog : Writer’s Craft #85 Writing A Great Duel Scene

Editing

Linda Yezak at Writing Fiction Right from novelist Gail Gaymer Martin : Pet Peeves of a Professional Editor

Conferences

Gwen Hernandez at The Edited Life : Workshop takeaways from the 2012 RWA conference

Hook /  Query

Mary Keeley at Books & Such Literary Agency : 8 Tips for Writing a Powerful Hook for Your Book Proposal

Images

Sarah Arrow at For Bloggers By Bloggers : Finding Timely Images for Topical Blog Posts

Promotion / Marketing

Jenny Hansen at Writers In The Storm : QR Codes ~ A Sexy Marketing Technique for Your Books

Rachelle Gardner : 8 Tips for Promoting Your Book Online

Cassandra Carr at Hot Blogging with Heart : Thursday Thirteen 8/16/12- 13 promos that worked for me

Writer Business

Amy Sorrells at The Writers Alley : Beyond Sticky Notes: A review of Scrivener for writers

SYTYCD

This week the great dance show was back and all performances were choreographed by Mia Michaels. Oh, bells!! Love Mia’s choreography. But the Top-14 faced a great dancer-challenge. They’d be performing previously performed routines, routines choreographed for past seasons, making it really easy to see where this year’s dancers fall short in direct comparison to past contestants. It may have been a bit cruel, but so is the life of a dancer. One performance stood out. It was not better than the original, but stood on its own. This routine made me cry when Kayla and Kupono performed it in season five, so powerful. I do suggest watching both performances, but please watch Lindsay and Cole first.

Both performances made me cry, how about you?

Lindsay & Cole performing “Addiction” choreographed by Mia Michaels

What you might have missed here: 

Six Sentence Sunday #29 – see Janna melt in want

Tantalizing Tuesday #2 – The flick of a cloak

Flash Fiction #20 – She deserves it

Links of the week #31

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It’s Saturday and time to review the treats from the week. The hubs is back with a music pick for you to enjoy.

Write Fresh

Maggie Lawson at Stacy Green – Turning the Page : Thriller Thursday: Margie Lawson – Visceral RULES!

Character Descriptions

Megan Ward at Writerland : How to Write Kick-Ass Character Descriptions

Story / Conflict

Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel : If something matters in your story, your characters must earn it

Show/Tell & Editing

Aimee L. Salter at Seeking the Write Life : “Telling” is Another Word for “Let Me Explain”

Corinne Duyvis at The Other Side of the Story : Guest Author Corinne Duyvis: Fast Drafting, Fast Editing

Subtext

Shannon Donnelly at Writers In The Storm : Tips on Subtext ~ What Is It REALLY?

Synopsis

Mary Keeley at Books & Such Literary Agency : 9 Tips for Writing a Perfect Synopsis

Promotion

Cassandra Carr at Hot Blogging with Heart : Thursday Thirteen 8/9/12- 13 Reasons an Author Shouldn’t Be an Island

Cara Bristol : More to promoting fellow authors than being nice…

Writer Business

Caitlin Muir at Author Media : 11 Places to Get a Free and Legal Photo for Your Blog

Roni Loren : Want Private Inspiration Boards? Alternatives to Pinterest

Marketing for Romance Writers : MFRW’s Annual “Write-place, Write-time” Submissions 2012 <– How cool is this! AND a pitch camp

John Yeoman at Writers’ Village : How to Use Strategic Guest Posting to Sell Books

Caitlin Muir at Author Media : What Every Author Needs To Know About Alt Text

Writer’s Life

Laurell K. Hamilton : Don’t Let Perfectionism Stop You <– a must read

Julie Glover : Ergonomics for Writers: Tension on the Page, Not on Your Back

Music from Jeffrey

This is ‘Shoofly Pie’ by The Wood Brothers from the album ‘Smoke Ring Halo’

It’s a team of two brothers.  One plays guitar and sings, and writes most of the tunes, and the other plays bass and sings.

The bass player, Chris Wood, has been a part of a very successful instrumental group called Medeski, Martin and Wood.  They are definitely an influence on my Jazz trio and on me personally.

Apparently, Chris and his brother never really played music together until later in life.  They’ve added a drummer, who also sings, and it seems they’ve really clicked.  I’ve enjoyed their previous albums but this one really stands apart.  It’s not quite as loose while still feeling greasy and funky.

They have a rootsy sound which allows them to cover a lot of ground.  From blues to gospel to southern soul to funk to folk, they’ve got it all in there in one shape or form.

I’m anxious to hear their albums from here on out.  I really think they’re on to something!

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #28

Flash Fiction #19 – His Brother’s Girl

Links of the week #29

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No surprise, I have great links to share today. I’ve told the hubs to take a break until SYTYCD is over, but they’re taking the next two weeks off. Jeff will be back next week with more great music. Wait till you see the clip I have for you this week, you’re in for a real treat.

Pitch 

Ashley Clark at The Writers Alley : Preparing the Perfect Pitch

Writer’s Life

Janet Reid, Literary Agent : If you are a writer, watch this

Act I / Opening

Jane Lebak at QueryTracker : Engaging Openings <–don’t miss all the links inside

Dialogue / Grammar

Lynnette Labelle : Dialogue Tag Misconceptions

Write Fresh

Marcy Kennedy : Three Ways The Emotion Thesaurus Helps You Write Better

Character Development 

Writing Fiction Right from novelist Gail Gaymer Martin : Four Personality Types For Characterization

Becca Weston at Peculiar Light : My Family’s Defining Qualities and What That Means for Your Characters

Narrative / Internalization

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story : Internal Medicine: How Much Internalization is Too Much? <– don’t miss the extra links to past posts, a fabulous full review

Conflict / Tension

Becca Puglisi at A Writer’s Journey : Becca Puglusi on Conflict vs. Tension

and

Becca Puglisi at Writing, Reading, and Life : Tension-Building Tips, Rowling Style: A Guest Post by Becca Puglisi

Editing

Kristi Boyce at The Write Practice : Read Terrible Books

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story : The Eyes Have it: Are You “Over Looking” Things in Your Manuscript?

Social Media

Molly Greene : How can a writer use Scoop.It!?

SYTYCD

An interesting week of performances. Some great, some okay, and some strange song choices. I had no idea which performance to share until it came time for the guest performance. Sorry contestants, but you were smoked this week by Alvin Ailey. The company has been around since 1958, so no one should be surprised. Check out the power and conflict in this piece choreographed by Robert Battle.

The Hunt

What you might have missed here:

Six Sunday #26

Flash Fiction #17

Links of the week #26

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Wow, did that week go fast or what. Hot and fast. The only way to recover from that kind of week: relax with a good book.  So, now that you know what I’m doing today, well, for as long as I can anyways :) below I have as many fabulous blogs as I was able to read this week. And Jeff is finally back this week. His music pick this week even has a follow-up pick for next week.

Act 1

The Writers Alley : Showing C.A.R.E. in Your First Chapter

Margo Berendsen : 17 tips for starting a story

Characters Development

Adrienne de Wolfe was at The Creative Penn : 20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

Plot

At Joan Swan’s : Martina Boone: Using GMC to Add Romantic Tension

Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo was at Writers In The Storm blog! : Is Your Conflict Strong Enough?

The Other Side of the Story : Going Both Ways: Outlines for Plot, Pantser for Character

Prose

From @smoulderingsea #editortips on 7/3/12 : Using “S/he could tell that…” to interpret another character’s actions is a cheap way to avoid breaking POV.

Pitch

From @smoulderingsea #editortips on 7/2/12: Challenge yourself to write a query pitch/blurb in only 150 words. It’ll force you to cut out anything extraneous and focus.

Editing

Seeing Creative posted about her experience with SmartEdit!! :) : Edit Smartly

The Other Side of the Story : The Spit Shine: Things to Check Before You Submit

Music from Jeff

My hubs is a drummer, you knew that right? Okay, so his theme this week and next is…

Really great drummers who are also really great singer/songwriter/guitarists.

The first one is obvious:

“Rope” by Foo Fighters, from the album “Wasting Light”

After having seen them live together, we both know just HOW MUCH they rock.

What I really like about Dave Grohl’s approach is that he released the first album under the band name with no attention to himself.  He could have easily used his post Nirvana fame to push the project through, so to speak.  Instead, he decided to let the music do the talking.  I think that’s admirable, but I also think it was a smart move.  It gave people the chance to judge the music purely on…the music.  What a concept!  No preconceived notions or other celebrity crap – just music.

Over the years, the band has been extremely successful at taking Dave’s songs and making them their own.  I think this album is one of the best examples of this.  They all play their roles to a perfection and sound like a BAND.

That freakin’ rocked!

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #24

Flash Fiction #14

Links of the week #25

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Happy weekend folks!! Boom, bang look at all those cool links for writers. Jeff took another week off from picking out great music. Not to worry, SYTYCD had loads of fabulous performance I wanted to share this week, so which one was my favorite?

Mommy Ninja

K.B. Owen via Jenny Hansen’s More Cowbell : A Ninja Mom’s Guide to Limiting Computer Time <–must read for any parent

Pitch Contest

Brenda Drake: Entangle an editor with your pitch!

Dialogue

Lynnette Labelle : The Secrets Behind Buried Dialogue Part 2 take away tip: can can bury narration, but not dialogue…read the post and the tip will make sense :)

Descriptions

Stina Lindenblatt over at Seeing Creative provided a cool idea : All In The Details

Character Development

Kristen Lamb : Making Heroes Heroic–Why Flaws are Important

Prose

Joe Bunting over at The Write Practice : 5 Elements of Storytelling

Plot

Darcy Pattison over at Fiction Notes : End of Act I: 5 Functions Determine Plot

Editing

Tiffany Lawson Inman was at Writers In The Storm yesterday :D : Worse Than a Cliché

Writer Business

Rick Carufel at Angie’s Diary : Disappearing Reviews at Amazon?

Writer’s Life

Suzanne Rock, Romance on a Budget: Budget Creativity: Using Mini-Goals to Motivate

Michael J. Scott at Author Culture : How To Write More…and More Often

I’ve completely fallen for @smoulderingsea and his #editortips, if you miss the daily tweets you can still catch them on his blog. Here is my fav from yesterday: When editing down backstory and inner monologue, keep only what the reader needs–not what you needed to sort your story.

Dance to inspire

So many great performances this week as SYTYCD season 9 revealed their top 20. This performance was by far my fav, enjoy

What you might have missed here:
Six Sentence Sunday #23
Spotlight: The Wager (Touch of the Gods) by D. X. Luc
Flash Fiction #13

Links of the week #23

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Happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by today. I’ve got some of my favorite links of the week for you, but I’ve given the hubs the week of from his music picks. He’s been working hard all week so I guess that’s okay ;) Instead I’ve picked an audition from this years So You Think You Can Dance.

Love learning from folks who have been there and done that

Cassandra Carr : Thursday Thirteen 6/14/12- 13 things I’ve learned about writing

M J Wright gives 5 tips that have worked for him : Conquering that dreaded blank page

Prose

Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel : Repetition – a two-ended hammer

Ollin Morales was at The Bookshelf Muse : 5 Techniques for Adding Subtext to your Story

Social Media

Marcy Kennedy : The 9 Steps to Switching From WordPress.com to WordPress.org: Part 1

Query

Lisa Burstein : PRETTY AMY Original Query Letter AND Query Tips!

Plot & Character

Martina Boone at DIY MFA (great worksheets too) : Plot vs. Character: Leaving Room for Magic – Guest Post by Martina Boone

SYTYCD Season 9

Lots of memorable auditions this year. This one stands out because she’s a mommy who has not given up on her dream. Listen to her story, watch her beautiful moves, and stay till the end, because her daughter dances too.

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #21

Spotlight: Enchanted Spring by Josee Renard Excerpt & Giveaway

Spotlight: Never Say Just by Katie Harper ~ Q&A by the Rat Bastards

Flash Fiction #11

Links of the week #22

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Back to my regular patterns this week. I have writing links for you and a music pick from Jeff. The video is a funny clip from Fred Armisen’s show “Portlandia”

The coolest thing: Kristen Lamb you are awesome! She has created a place for writers to not be alone ;) you can chat with other writers in your genre and it’s a place to learn from WRITERS. Hurry, click away, come back to my list later I Bring You…A Gift–A New Era for the Digital Age Artist

Cassandra Carr : Thursday Thirteen 6/7/12- 13 cool phone apps for authors be sure to check the comments too

Aimee L. Salter at Seeking the Write Life : The Three Things You Need to Make Your Book GREAT

Roni Loren : How To Write Love Scenes That Don’t Suck – A Free Class!

Titles

M J Wright : Worldbuilding: top tips for tantalising titles

Show/Tell

Shannon Donnelly was at Writers In The Storm this week : When to TELL the Story

Motivation

Sharla Rae at Writers In the Storm : Does Your Story Lack A Heartbeat?

Scene Breaks & Transitions

Janice Hardy from The Other Side of the Story : Moving Forward: Writing Smooth Transitions

Plotting

This week via Stina Lindenblatt and her cool links Friday, I found Margo Berendsen : 21 ways to make your plot more compelling

Book Trailers

Lynnette Labelle : Do Book Trailers Sell Books?

Pitch/Query

Jami Gold had a fabulous post this week with a big collection of ideas: The Ultimate Guide to Pitch Writing

Social Media

Kristen Lamb : Can Facebook Hold Your Fan Page Hostage? Fallout from the IPO Debacle & How It Affects YOU

Music from Jeff

“Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood” by St. Vincent, from the album “Actor”

St. Vincent is actually Annie Clark.  I think she got her break playing with the Polyphonic Spree.  She’s a wonderful singer/songwriter/guitarist.

Her music is so interesting to me.  I can hear the influences, but the way in which she stirs them up and spits them out is very unique to her.  I think it starts with her guitar style and musical knowledge.  She’s not the average singer/songwriter nor is she the average guitarist.

I’ve heard that she writes the tunes on the guitar and then deconstructs them in the studio.  I really like that idea and the end result.  Sometimes it can be a little too out there for me but then, after a few listens, I’m back in again.  That’s the point, it seems – draw the listener in right away but also give us something to discover over time.  I think all truly great music does this.

I’ve also seen some clips of her playing her songs stripped down to just voice and acoustic guitar.  It’s clear that all the studio production is merely a means to create interesting layers to already great tunes.

Plus, she has Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley’s drummer) on drums.  Musically, you can’t go wrong with that guy in your band!

What you might have missed here:

Six Sentence Sunday #20

Spotlight: Sara’s Smile by Sandra Bunino ~ Q&A and Giveaway

Flash Fiction #10

Links of the week #19

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It’s Saturday, so again I have collected a bunch of wonderful posts from this past week. Enjoy and don’t forget to see, at the bottom, what Jeff has selected for us to listen to this week.

Write Fresh

Marcy Kennedy made it easy to understand where to put descriptions and where to cut in How to Use Taste to Make Your Readers Hungry for More

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story made me smile with this post title Did I Just Say That? When Characters Say Dumb Things. My characters can say some pretty dumb things and I love it. Do you?

Characters

Susan Bearman at Write it Sideways gave advice to remember Fall Out of Love with Your Main Character

Plot

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story talked plot yesterday and I’ve read these ideas before, but this post looks at things from a new angle The Best Advice on Plotting I’ve Ever Heard: Two Tips That Will Make Plotting Easier

Writer Business

Aimee Salter over at Seeking the Write Life provided some levity: Top 10 Reasons You Need An Editor

Rachel Kent at Books & Such gave a refreshing list Qualities Agents Look for in Clients

Sara Megibow was at Romance University this week laying it all out Sara Megibow Sells Romance – Who is a “good” literary agent?

Music from Jeff

Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars.  Even though they are only a duo, they have a collective group sound.You may remember seeing them on the grammy’s this past year.  I think they won a bunch of ‘em.

They’re a great songwriting duo whose voices blend perfectly.  What’s very cool about this group is that, while they have a great vocal blend, their individual voices are fairly distinct.  With a unique voice it can often be difficult to blend with anyone else, let alone another unique voice.  It’s a rare and special thing when this happens and I think they realized it right away. Plus, they seem to write songs well together…another tricky skill.

The whole album is quite a bit more mellow than this tune but I’ve been enjoying.  They also have a really cool version of ‘I want you back’ by the Jackson 5. They contributed a few tunes, including one with Taylor Swift (that certainly adds to her lacking credibility), for the hunger games movie.  Those tunes (even the one with Taylor Swift) are very good as well.

p.s. they are not a couple.  They are each married to other people.  I think they get that question a lot because of how close they seem to be.

Hope you enjoyed the links this week. Did you miss my Flash Fiction from yesterday? And last, don’t forget to come back tomorrow for my six sentences from my WIP.

Links of the week #14

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All kinds of good stuff this week and a fantastic book trailer

Writer’s Life

This post hit home for me, it’s from the Round of Words in 80-days blog: The Number One Way To Reach Your Goals: Write! by Belle DiMonte

Big thanks to fellow ROW80er Barbara McDowell who provided great links in her check-in this week Ali Luke over at Aliventures posted in January of last year: 7 Habits of Serious Writers, Ali has a great site and I’m having tons of fun there.

Gabrielle Bisset had Ginger Simpson Guest Post this week: Write with Purpose

Kristen Lamb hit the nail on the head this week with her post Stress Less, Write More

Backstory

Roni Loren gives us some tips: How To Dish Out Backstory In Digestible Bites #atozchallenge

Janice Hardy at The Other Side of the Story provided additional tips for dialog: Your Words Are Dead to Me: Infodumps Through Dialog

Characters

Leia Shaw was at Nights of Passion this week with a list of characteristics your leading lady will need to, well, please all the picky bitches. The post made me giggle, but it’s some serious stuff. Pleasing Picky Bitches by Leia Shaw

Carrie Ann Ryan was over at Louisa Bacio’s this week Getting into the Mind of My Characters with Carrie Ann Ryan

Descriptions

Two of my favs came together this week. Janice Hardy was at Writers In The Storm!! 5 Ways to Bring Your Descriptions to Life by Janice Hardy

Plotting

Holy smokes Janice hit out of the park twice this week. This time on her site, The Other Side of the Story: Clarifying Thoughts: Revising Your Outlines to Make the Writing Easier

Social Media

Jenny Hansen is here to help again with Triberr. Her post this week has links to all her past posts on Triberr and this week she covers the most recent changes: If You Can’t Find Anything in the New #Triberr, You’re In the Right Post! #AtoZchallenge

Giggles

Karen Rought over at the Midnight Novalist wrote a post this past Monday that made me giggle: Word Wisdom: Phrases I’ve Misinterpreted

Here at my blog you might have missed Spotlight: Demonically Tempted by Stacey Kennedy you can also click here to go to Stacey’s site, once there you’ll find a Teaser (Chapter 1!) and the Buy links. I’m leaving you with Stacey’s trailer b/c it rocks and not many trailers do. This trailer is totally worth a watch.

Links of the week #13

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I don’t know how they all do it, but man I loved the posts this week…

Craft Books

I’m starting with the big guns, Jennifer Crusie put together a list of writing craft books: The Argh Writing Craft Reading List

Plotting & Prose

Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo joined Writers In The Storm and her first post is fantastic! Plot Fixer – Part I: Your Premise Isn’t Compelling

Katie Ganshert was at Rachelle Gardner’s this week and provided the 2-3 punch, seriously good stuff: Balancing Story and Prose 

May 14th! So exciting, that’s when…well check out the post from The Bookshelf Muse: Official Deets About The Emotion Thesaurus

Blurbs

Sharla Rae, was also at Writers in the Storm this week: Gotcha Blurbs: Easy and Fun To Write

Social Media

Molly Greene has an updated one of her popular posts: How To Succeed On Twitter

Writer Business

Do you have the patient’s to be a writer? I’ve read a lot on the web about the coming and goings of would be writers. Not all of us have what it takes or the patience to do the training it takes. Here’s hoping I’m still around next year and I just might, because even the title of this next post didn’t scare me away :) Thanks Rachelle Gardner for the reality check: Writers and Taxes

Place Descriptions

Lydia Sharp over at The Sharp Angle provided good food for thought: Finding Excitement Potential in a Potentially Boring Setting

Characters

Becca Puglisi of  The Bookshelf Muse was over at write to done and gave us: Beyond the Cliché: How to Create Characters that Fascinate

Editing

Janice Hardy hit it right out of the park with this one Seems So: Are Your Characters Making Misleading Assumptions?

Backing-up

What’s your back-up plan? Is it a wish and a prayer? Do you email your most import files to yourself? Do you have a flash drive? Do you use a service? I’ve used all theses including drop boxes free service, it’s only 2 GB, but it’s free. I don’t know about you, but all of my writing stuff is not yet 2 GB. If you refer folks they’ll give you even more free space…here’s my referral code if you’d like to give it a try: http://db.tt/EiAxz9qS and if you do, don’t forget to share the love and send out your referral code. Help a friend day: do you know someone who’s plan is a wish and a prayer?

Thank you Susan Hanniford Crowley, I like this check list and I’m going to create my own: What A Writer Needs, Part 9 – Encouragement

Hope you all are having a fine weekend and maybe a little chocolate. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to the deviled eggs, yummy :)