Story Sensei

(This article originally appeared on another blog in 2010 but I’m reposting it here.) I’m talking about balancing your writing with your “other stuff” as opposed to balancing your checkbook or not tripping over your feet every time you walk (I do the latter quite a lot, actually ...). Let’s face it, sometimes life gets just SO crazy busy you feel like you need to sleep for a YEAR to recover, except, oops, you only have time for a 2 minute nap before you have to do something else. My creativity reeeeeaaallly does not like to be hemmed in by schedules. Or discipline. Or deadlines, for that matter. It will pout in a corner just when I absolutely need a burst of some artistic brilliance to explode out of my fingers onto the computer screen. So I have learned to achieve balance between life and writing by compartmentalizing. Now before you run away screaming, hear me out. I’m not talking about anything rigid or (heaven forbid) disciplined . I’m talking about some tips and tricks...

(This article originally appeared on another blog in 2010 but I’m reposting it here.) As I write this, it’s late evening in California, because I’ve discovered my best writing time is usually in the evening and early morning hours. For years this really frustrated me because who in their right mind writes best at 2 a.m.? Especially when I had to get up at 8 a.m. to go to my biology job. (Pain and suffering ...) Why can’t I be like Ruthy who can get up at (Godforsaken) 4 in the morning to efficiently zip off a chapter before breakfast? Alas, God has a sense of humor. It’s why He gave me and my husband a buttheaded dog for our first family pet and why I out of all my cousins has a behind the size of Alaska. I write best between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., Pacific Standard time. It’s always been this way for me. Even when studying in college, I was most efficient around midnight. So how about you guys? (I know I’m going to regret this because I’m going to be insanely jealous at all you ...

This is a fantastic article by Brandilyn Collins. Several of her points are similar to what I read in one of my favorite writing books, Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias . Ten Ways To Create Character Empathy

Camy here: I STRONGLY recommend this course! Many of the manuscripts that I critique could use more emotional writing, and this course is the best of its kind in teaching how to write with more emotion, more emotional intensity, more psychologically resonating emotion. TAKE THIS COURSE! This course is designed for writers of ALL GENRES, published or unpublished. You'll work at your own pace, on your own level. EMPOWERING CHARACTERS' EMOTIONS (details below) Presenter: Margie Lawson Cost: $20.00 PASIC members, $30.00 non-members - payable by PayPal Deadline to Register: February 27, 2010 TO REGISTER, GO HERE: http://pasic.net/class_lawson_032010.html CLASS INFORMATION: Would you like to learn how to: Capture emotion on the page? Hook the reader by eliciting a visceral response? Analyze your scenes? Fix scenes that don't work? Increase micro-tension? Add psychological power to a good scene and make it stellar? This power-packed on-line class...

Lynda Schab interviewed me on my journey to publication! This was fun because she asked questions on topics I didn't think about when I first gave my writing journey story . Now, Camy shares her journey to publication: Fiction, non-fiction, or both? Fiction Genre: Romantic suspense and humorous contemporary romance How many books have you written? 9 How many of those have been published? 4 Years you've been writing: Longer than dirt. Okay, seriously, I started writing in Junior High or High School, but didn't start writing seriously until I got laid off from my biology job, which was in 2002 Click here to read the entire interview!

 (I originally posted this article on a blog in 2010, but I’m reposting it here.) I wanted to talk about putting together a fiction proposal for your manuscript. Not all proposals are set up the same way, but I’m going to go through the structure of a typical one. Cover page (It can be single or double-spaced, your choice) Your name and contact info in the top left corner (mailing address, phone number, email address) The manuscript’s genre and word count in the top right corner In the center of the page, center justification: Title of Your Novel by Your Name (optional) your agent’s name and contact information in the bottom right corner After the cover page, all the other pages of the proposal should have a header just like a manuscript, with the title, your name, and the page number of the proposal. Story blurb (optional) Start this on a fresh page after your cover page, and single space it. The story blurb is just a paragraph—two to four sentences—abou...