I have seen and heard the question asked, “How do you write?” The answer I hear most often is, it depends on the writer. Some writers are planners, some discover their writing as they go. For me? The best answer I can give is, “It depends.” For example, when JR Murdock and I are preparing to write our Jack Kane novels (one of which is published already and another is being worked on) we plot and plan to the nth degree. When I write my Mik Murdoch books (again, two published and one at the publisher) I do a combination of the two. I plot high level, getting more granular on the two or three chapters I’m immediately faced with. […]
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Writing in Multiple Universes
If you are like me, you have more stories floating around in your brain than you have time to actually write. Some of those stories involve one set of characters, others another. It can lead to all sorts of problems when it is time to actually sit down and do the writing. That doesn’t even consider how complicated the story-telling can be in a single novel. For example, I wrote a novel once where I had some important but secondary characters show up from time-to-time. The initial writing of the novel went by very quickly but with revisions and follow-up edits, the names (and some of the description) of those characters changed somewhere between the beginning and the end. Can […]
Read moreGet Published Episode 113 – Self Publishing with Scott Roche
I have been thinking of self-publishing some of my books more and more the past few months. When I heard that friend and fellow author Scott Roche was releasing yet another book via self-publishing, I knew I had to pick his brain. And what better place to do that than on Get Published so I can share his wisdom with you? We had a terrific conversation that went much longer than my normal interviews. That being the case, I’ve decided to forgo the normal tips and typos section this episode. We talk about covers, editing, layout, distribution and promotion. It has only helped to fuel my desire to self-publish. I hope you get as much out of it as I […]
Read moreKeeping Track of Your Characters
I just had an OMG moment while writing book 2 of Mik Murdoch, currently titled, Mik Murdoch and the Power Within. I have been moving along quite nicely in the writing when I realized something. I had named one of my new, main female protagonists the same as one of my baddies from the first book. That would never do! I mean, it is theoretically possible that two people will have the same name (obviously) but, with all the names in the world, should I be naming two characters the same? Considering that one is a protagonist and the other an antagonist, I would say not. It’s much too confusing for one thing. So I went back to the drawing board […]
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