Look!

YOU WANT TO READ THIS BLOG POST because

-you want to increase your daily word count
-you want to double your daily word count
-you want a formula for success
-you want to write 10k/day
-you want to write more efficiently
-you want to eliminate crap scenes from your writing
-you love inspirational blog posts

YOU WANT TO READ THIS BLOG POST because

-you love art
-you love to combine images with the ideas and characters of your novel
-you need a new and creative blog post idea
-you love matching actors' faces with your characters' faces
-beautiful images are your muse
-you are creative
-you wish you were creative
-you love the idea of creating a collage that represents your writing

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO BUY THE CHILDREN IN YOUR LIFE FOR CHRISTMAS

-so go to these sites, order and have the gifts sent right to their doorstep so their parents can wrap them for you!

melissa and doug puppet theater (go ahead, spoil them rotten!)

melissa and doug floor puzzles (beginner, intermediate, and a little more challenging)

alex toys (bath toys, art toys, educational toys, etc)

YOU LOVE CHEESE!  EVERYONE YOU LOVE LOVES CHEESE!

-okay, so another shameless plug for my father-in-law's cheese store:  Springside Cheese--family owned, Wisconsin-made cheese!

(YOU CAN ORDER ONLINE! AND HAVE THE CHEESE SHIPPED!  THEY HAVE GIFT BOXES!).

Best cheese EVER.  REALLY.  I KID YOU NOT!  Squeakiest, freshest CHEESE CURDS! 

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

and...just for no reason at all.  i leave you with this.

Sorry, I got distracted

The latest Black Friday sale resulted in my husband getting the 3rd season of Sons of Anarchy for really, really cheap. And letting me watch it.

So blame them. Black Friday. Whoever that may be. Or look at this. He's to blame for me not being able to blog. Never mind. Just look at this:



Holy crap. I mean, really.

Kill me now. I'll still be happy.

 I just died. Good bye, cruel world.

It's good I'm dead. I won't know what I'm missing.

I was wondering....

When you are critiquing someone's writing, and you tell them it's well written, what, exactly, are you saying?  What facet of that person's writing are you referring to?  Or does your "well written" comment vary from writer to writer?  Do you sometimes mean its grammatically well written and other times think the voice is right on?  Can you tell they did a sound -ly search and omitted all extraneous adverbs and adjectives?  Are the sentences clear and concise?

What does well written mean to you?



(And for those of you with hyphen issues, like me, I had to look this up.

This book is well written. (The compound modifier comes after the noun, so no hyphen.)

This is a well-written book. (The compound modifier comes before the noun, so it gets a hyphen.

Hyphenate the elements of a compound modifier only if that modifier precedes the noun.       

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1131926)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking a little break to enjoy family, go shopping, do some writing, and eat some turkey. Happy Thanksgiving to all our fellow-United-Statesians. (ha) And happy weekend to everyone else!

all turkey phots courtesy of photobucket

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Go Pack Go!!!!

don't forget to get your title critiqued

I didn't nest at the end of my first two pregnancies.  I think I'm making up for it this time around.  Yes, I have triple nesting syndrome.  And let me tell you trying to scrub and scour, especially those hard to reach places that I haven't cleaned in way too long for me to mention here, is not only exhausting but extremely difficult with this HUGE, and by huge I mean GINOROMOUS stomach.  In the past two days the baby must have doubled in size. I'm NOT exaggerating.  No kidding. 

I am being induced on December 21.  Unless he decides to come earlier than that.  He'll be 39 weeks that day.  I'm not placing any bets that he'll come earlier.

Feel free to.

And there is no way to tie that info to writing.  So I'm just going to switch topics now.

We've covered TITLES on this blog before because we were surprised to learn over the summer (@ WOC and I believe through a query contest @ Mother. Write. Repeat with agent Sara LaPolla) that TITLES MATTER.  We always figured they'll be changed later so why spend a heck of a lot of time sweating over the title.

BUT if our last post on how titles matter didn't convince you, maybe this post (by agent Suzie Townsend ) will.  See it here.  (And yes, apparently she requested 37 manuscripts from her last query contest.  Mine was not one of them.  Remember?  YA contemporary is too hard to sell right now.  (Especially mine because it does not stand out in a crowd.  *sniff*)

Personally, I love choosing my title.  Unfortunately, once I choose one (usually before I begin writing or shortly after getting going), and it stays the same.  I grow attached. 

I figure the best thing to do is choose a fitting title it when the novel is all said and done, but since when do I listen to my own advice? 

I've recently started hanging out and posting stuff at Query Tracker (Did you know they had forums there?  I didn't.  They're nice and very helpful.)  Besides just critiquing my query, one person commented on my title and why it didn't work for them.  Nobody has ever commented on my title before, so it was a bit of an eye opener for me.  It made me realize that people will have an opinion on it and it may determine whether or not they choose to read/crit my stuff.

The same goes for agents.

So, put a little extra thought into how your title represents AND SELLS your manuscript!