For those of you expecting to come to the site and hear the newest episode of ‘Get Published’, I can only offer my apologies. As of this moment, the podcasting piece of the site is broken and refuses to bring up ‘Get Published’ at all. Please be patient as I am working diligently to get this fixed. Thank you. -Michell
Read moreCategory: Irreverent Muse
Don’t be Afraid to Help
Anyone who has ever tried to get his/her work in print knows how tough (virtually impossible?) it is to do. Publishers and agents are inundated with dozens/hundreds of submissions every month; how can they possibly separate the wheat from the chaff? I’ve heard many times that a manuscript must be truly exceptional to be considered. That raises the question for me, how many first books fit that description? Often the reason an author’s second book is better than the first is because the author has had the chance to go through the editing process. Without the first book you as an author may never get the second book chance. Granted, you can always hire an editor to work through the book with […]
Read moreHow Much Should Your Character Know?
It’s always a challenge to keep your characters from knowing too much. After all, your characters come out of your head and you are the one with all the answers. How can they not know too much? I realized that I had the problem after one of my protagonists acted too understanding towards another character. That compassion, while praiseworthy was not natural. The character was rude, obnoxious and mean to my protagonist. I didn’t even notice it until it was pointed out to me. I had to step back and really evaluate what was going on. I came to the conclusion that the reaction was normal only if the protagonist knew the demons that haunted the mean character. Since the […]
Read moreKeeping Your Character’s Voice Consistent
You have a character in your head who is clamoring to get out. You already know his or her entire backstory: where he/she was born, who were the parents, first loves, first broken bone, etc. etc. You also know how the character should grow during the story. So far so good. Then you start to write and the character ‘magically’ goes from being a hard-headed bitch (substitute bastard for a guy if you like) to someone who gets all emotional over the smallest thing. And it all happens in a few short chapters. Maybe even in a few paragraphs. Sound familiar? It happened to me in my book “The Goddess Renewed”. One of my protagonists, Paena (female, in case you’re […]
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