Welcome to My Author Blog
Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh for hosting the Insecure Writers Support Group.
Time for the Insecure Writers Support Group, when we vent our troubles and encourage each other in this crazy thing called writing. I appreciate Alex Cavanaugh for his brainchild! Please join us if you dare.
How’s your work-in-progress coming along? I started writing the sequel to my college volleyball romance Blocked. This one’s titled Aced, and features the romance between a 24-year-old Mexican American med student and a 22-year-old African-American volleyball star.
I’m rather conflict averse, but I find myself exploring some controversial topics in these novels. Blocked battles political differences, and Aced explores racial differences. Though I feel uncomfortable with conflict, discussing opposing points of view can be an enlightening experience in real life. I hope to offer a balanced take on touchy subjects in my writing.
Does your first draft feel like utter crap sometimes? I try to trudge through but writing can feel so difficult some days!
Congrats to my pub sister Debra Anastasia for the success of her crazy-ass comedy Fire Down Below! She has the wildest, dirtiest sense of whack ball humor!
Time for 2015’s first Insecure Writer’s Support Group, a chance to share our hopes and fears, hosted by Alex Cavanaugh.
Since starting as a writer eight years ago, I’ve grown. (I’ve gained about twenty pounds, but that’s for another post.) The kind of growth I’ll discuss today is writing skill development. While I still have so much to learn, one area I’ve improved is tighter writing.
Be gone, verbal diarrhea!
So I want to share this excellent post, 25 Ways to Tighten Your Writing by Betsy Mikel with YOU.
A few of those tips that resonate with me:
1) Stop the adverb abuse. (I was a big offender). Dump the adverbs and choose more descriptive verbs. Instead of “I moved slowly”, try “I trudged.”
2) Knock out the highfalutin’ vocabulary. When I first started writing, I wanted to impress everyone with my intelligence by using words like avocation, prescient, and anathema. Then I learned NOBODY CARES how smart I am. Readers just want a good story with compelling characters, and bigass words might interrupt the flow.
3) Use contractions, which help dialogue sound more realistic. I can’t believe how long I’d write without contractions.
The article provides a link to 200 Common Redundancies. My critique partner Nicki Elson and I felt overwhelmed by reading that list!
In 2015, may your writing be loose and your editing tight, writer friends.
Thanks to author ninja Alex Cavanaugh for his brainchild:
I want to hear your experiences with writing series. Love ’em? Hate ’em?
I have written one stand-alone New Adult sports romance and one romantic suspense trilogy. I’m considering turning my upcoming NA volleyball romance Blocked into a series.
So I have some writerly questions for you, in my deliberations. Feel free to answer none, one, or more!
1. Do you prefer to read stand-alone novels or series? Why?
2. Have you ever written a series (or plan to write one)? If so, when in the process did you realize you wanted to write a series?
3. If you like series, do you prefer the same characters as protagonists or new main characters featuring “spin-offs” in subsequent novels?
4. How do you decide to write a stand-alone or a series?
5. How many books are ideal for a series? When does a series get too long for you?
THANK YOU! Write on, my friends.
Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for starting the Insecure Writers Support Group! Learn more HERE.
I’ve been focusing on the psycho part of my psycho author career lately. I just finished a professional conference in Big Sky, Montana, and head back down the mountain today. Right now it’s -17 F! Here’s the view from my hotel room:
Inspiration in Strange Places
Hey, fellow writers! *waves*
My main insecurity this month is my book sales. Two words: They suck. 😉
Hope you published authors out there are doing better!
But I am enjoying writing my current work-in-progress: a New Adult volleyball romance titled Blocked.
I have fun finding inspiration in strange places, like my volleyball board on Pinterest. I’m proud that I worked this quote into my novel:
Time for the Insecure Writers Support Group, started by Alex Cavanaugh.
How’s it going, writers? I’m happy with the new job I started in August, and looking forward to the holidays. Since I work for a university now, I actually get Veteran’s Day off work, yahoo!
Do you enjoy using personal experiences in your writing? I do. For example, I like to write therapy scenes incorporating my experiences as a psychologist.
I’m blessed with some hilarious friends and I like to “borrow” their dialogue now and then. When my swimming buddy Joe met my plus-sized cat, he said “That’s not a cat…that’s a cow.” Guess what one of my characters will say about his brother’s fat cat?
I’m currently writing my fifth novel, a New Adult volleyball romance titled Blocked. Although swimming was my main sport in college, I also played volleyball, and it’s a blast writing about this fun sport. My teammates and I engaged in fierce euchre tournaments, and not surprisingly this card game is making its way into the story.
What is one of your favorite personal experiences that you’ve incorporated into your writing?
If you’re feeling insecure, here’s a funny scene from the movie Young Adult to make you feel better about yourself as a writer:
While all of us get mired in insecurities now and then, I think there’s a lot to celebrate about being an author, like NEW RELEASES.
Our own Ninja Captain and creator of IWSG Alex J. Cavanaugh launched book three in his Cassa series: Cassa Storm!
We’re proud of him for finishing his first series–what an accomplishment. Buy it HERE.
I love how my pub sister Nicki Elson challenges herself with new writing projects, like this zombie fairytale Hans & Greta, coming soon! Great job, Nicki.
Another talented pub sister Carol Oates designed that creepy cover. Well done, Carol!
Finally, I read a wonderful author blog post last month that I wanted to link to for the Insecure Writers Support Group, but alas, I can’t find it now. The gist of the message was that your book might not be a best-seller…it might not receive critical acclaim…but it is YOUR story, and therefore it is important.
We write books the way only we know how — each novel is a unique creation to celebrate. Sometimes we get wrapped up in comparing ourselves to others, instead of appreciating our special author voice and the opportunity to share that story with the world.
Speaking of unique, Nicki, Carol, and I have our leading men engaged in a Book Boyfriend SMACKDOWN (don’t ask). If you have extra time *laughs* and want to vote for our guys, please hop over to Love Between the Sheets HERE.
Congratulations, Alex Cavanaugh! Your brainchild Insecure Writers Support Group celebrates its two year anniversary today, and I’m happy to be part of the group.
Today I want to discuss critique partners, and I have many questions for you. Do you have a critique partner? Several? How does it work for you? (What’s the structure? Has it helped you? What do you wish you’d known when you started?)
A good friend and I agreed to be critique partners, and I want to learn from the collective wisdom of this group about how to make this relationship work best.
When I started writing, I posted stories online, and the feedback made me eager to get the next chapter out there. Now that I’m writing novels, my motivation has waned. I’m hoping that having an encouraging friend waiting for the next chapter will help inspire me to write more frequently.
In other news, my next novel On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3) launches 9-24-13. In celebration, my publisher slashed the price of the first novel in the romantic suspense series to only $.99.
If you have a moment, would you be willing to help spread the word by tweeting one of these?
Win a print copy of ON BEST BEHAVIOR by @JenLaneBooks — romantic suspense with a psychological twist. http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/63573-on-best-behavior
They found love in a hopeless place. WITH GOOD BEHAVIOR by @JenLaneBooks only $.99! #romance http://www.amazon.com/With-Good-Behavior-ebook/dp/B003VU00QU/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1
Thanks for your support and here’s to a wonderful September.
Time for our monthly support group! *pulls up a chair and nods to group leader Alex*
What’s on tap for today’s group? I want to discuss book VISUALS.
Have you made a book trailer for your novel? Looked for images of models representing your characters?
I’ve spent hours on both tasks this week. My aunt Nancy, who works as a video producer, is helping my publisher and me with a book trailer for On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3), before its release in September. My task is to write a script and find images.
Nancy and I agreed on the opening line for the trailer:
But the rest takes diligent work to make it shiny and fresh!
Then, I needed to find images to represent my hawt romantic heroes for my publisher’s “Men of Omnific Smackdown” at the end of September. It was HARD WORK perusing thousands of images of scrumptious gents to find just the right ones, I tell you. Whew.
I think I found the right guys though. It helps when my pub sister Carol Oates manipulates the images to make them just right!
I’m taking advantage of 7 day trials at a stock photo and video site.
Have YOU made visual representations of your characters and stories? Any tips you’d like to share?
Jennifer Lane Books 