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Critiquing Other People’s Writing: 7 Tips for Making Manuscripts Better

by MKMarketing | Jun 18, 2011 | Best Writer Tips, Fiction Novel Writing, Freelance Writing

“Just shoot me now.” A good critique may begin with this response, but soon the scolding red marks reveal overlooked obstacles to your work’s potential. When you make friends with the red pen pointing out weak story points, redundancy or grammar...

Feel the Heat: Sex and Fiction. 8 Tips for Building Tension

by MKMarketing | May 27, 2011 | Best Writer Tips, Fiction Novel Writing, For the love of writing, Guest posts

Will your fictional characters, at some point, hit the sheets? As most of us creative types enjoy a delicious romp in the sack in real life, it shouldn’t be too difficult to apply our trusty, book-enhancing observational skills to break down, scene by scene, moment...

10 Simple Ways to Support Authors You Love, and Love the Readers Who Support You

by MKMarketing | May 23, 2011 | Best Writer Tips, Fiction Novel Writing, Guest posts, Who is Writing What?

I’ll admit it, I’m a fangirl. When an author’s amazing book inspires awe, when an agent teaches a class with the intention of improving and inspiring our burgeoning manuscripts, or either write a blogpost containing encouragement and advice for other...

Do Readers Care About Your Fiction Characters?

by MKMarketing | Mar 14, 2011 | Best Writer Tips, Fiction Novel Writing, For the love of writing, Guest posts

Action is my habit. When I briskly type out an initial draft of a scene, the early rendition reveals a pesky ritual of churning my characters through conflict after conflict, plowing them through troubles, smacking them in the forehead with insult and...

Thoughts on Plots (and whatnot) with James Thayer

by MKMarketing | Mar 8, 2011 | Best Writer Tips, Fiction Novel Writing, For the love of writing, Guest posts

When people ask what your book is about, they are really asking about the plot. A response: “It’s about two German Shepherds sniffing for buried treasure,” only scrapes the surface. Why dogs? Why that breed? What kind of treasure? Where? When? What...
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