Throwback Thursday!!

**Come take a peek at the past...our very own D.F. Matthew's first post**

IMAGINING A NEW WORLD WITH HELP FROM A BLUE HEN

Recently I was waltzing down the aisles at my local bookstore (yes I said waltzing) and I actually took a moment to truly look at what was available to read. I was stunned to realize how bland the selections before me actually were. Seriously. How uninspired the books felt.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. You make your way into your favorite bookstore. You’re greeted at the door with the aroma of overpriced yet delicious coffee and baked goods; the sight of aisles upon aisles of books waiting to be chosen like pound puppies sends your heart a flutter, and the store owner’s offers of a foot massage. Okay, aside from the last part, you are in a slice of heaven right now. You come across your favorite section; check what actually lines the shelves. Am I wrong? About ninety percent is the same book told in a different voice. Even in a category like Sci-fi/ fantasy you’re hard pressed to find many new ideas. Dragons, orcs, trolls, wyverns, oh this one has the fabled golden dragon, wait, I just read that one.
Where did all the imagination go?...(Continue reading HERE)

Throwback Thursday!!

**One of Michelle's very first piece of advice....come take a look!**

USING DESCRIPTIVE SETTINGS

Descriptive setting has none of the excitement of an action scene, none of the glamour of dialogue.But too little description and the reader can get lost, unable to figure out what’s happening.Too much of it and the reader is yawning.Who hasn’t skimmed over paragraphs of description of countryside and weather to get to the good stuff?I do it all the time.

So it’s no surprise, descriptive setting is my least favorite type of writing.It’s usually way down on the list of priorities.Plus, avoiding passive writing and lazy ‘was/were’ sentences is always a challenge for me.Much easier to write ‘the forest was full of tall evergreen trees’ then to craft it into an entertaining sentence like ‘evergreen trees rose tall and straight along the road creating a dense screen’.Leaving out the descriptive setting, however, is a missed opportunity.There are three potential ways for this type of writing to increase the wow of your story....(Continue reading HERE)

Throwback Thursday!!

**It's that time again! Take a gander at another blast from the past**

LINGERING: MAKING MOMENTS MATTER

Lingering. Lovely word isn’t it? It rolls off the tongue, overflowing with a certain strange…nostalgia. And that’s partly what lingering does.

Imagine your hero or heroine standing before a mirror, dressed in a well-cut suit or a beautiful dress or even in armour. Now if you wanted to give this moment impact you would use lingering—it lets you pause, almost freeze-frame the moment in the book. To capture it.

Lingering employs two concepts. One I like to call “tiny details” and the other is character arc. Character arc is the way the character is in the story—their viewpoint—and, as the story progresses, how that viewpoint changes.

Tiny details in a novel are like moments in life you remember in retrospect. Like, for example, how hot one summer was, how that coffee stain on the carpet never really went away. Basically, tiny details are the little, specific things that make moments memorable.

How do you apply these two concepts to our hero-at-a-mirror example? Easy....(Continue reading HERE)

Throwback Thursday!!

**Here's another post from the early days. Enjoy!**

VANITY PRESSES: BEWARE THE LURE

I still receive a lot of questions on exactly what vanity presses are, how to avoid them, and why you should. Vanity presses are something every writer should be aware of, so here, I'll cover what they are, how to spot them, how they work, and why you should avoid them.

First and foremost, Vanity Presses are SCAM ARTISTS. Nothing hurts me more than seeing innocent aspiring authors taken for their money and work by people who know how to prey on the desperate and the uninformed. If you never read anything from me, PLEASE READ THIS POST. And if you know anyone who has asked you about Vanity Presses, or who has been approached by one, before they answer a single email from these so called publishers, tell them to STOP. Tell them to stop right there, and SEND THEM HERE.

So here's how it works. You've completed your novel, and after months or years of hard work, you're looking for the perfect publisher. Or perhaps you've sent your manuscript out and the rejections have started coming in. Then, one day you receive an email from a publishing company saying they would like to publish you. Your heart soars. All your hard work is about to pay off, and all dreams are about to come true. All you have to do is answer that email, give them the list of things they ask for, and it's done. Best of all, they're not asking for much. A bio, a photo, a list of family members who want to buy your novel, and x amount of dollars. Easy, right?....(Continue reading HERE)

Throwback Thursday!!

**Who said time travel doesn't exist?

Have a look at one of For the Love of Writing's very first blog posts. **

UNLEASH YOUR BEAST

I'll bet most or all of you have heard that tired old advice more than you'd like. The one that goes: Just write! Don't think! But unfortunately, that is often easier said than done. Even I have spouted those two sentences a time or two. And yet, even I struggle to swallow my own advice sometimes.
That's why I'm writing about this and something else. Something we all still fear at times.

Another saying that we as writers have heard is: Write what you know.

It's easier that way, no? If you are a nurse, or have experience in the nursing field, then perhaps your characters or storylines reflect a bit of that in your books. If you are one of those who crave the affections of another, then your characters might act the same way. It's always simpler to write what you know.

If you write romance, you stick to romance. If you write horror, you stick to horror.

Yes, you may add a few elements of other genres in your writing but only a bit here and there.

Someone asked me the other day...what happens if you get stuck in a rut? What happens if you always ONLY stick to what you know and never explore writing about anything else?...... (Continue reading HERE)