Blog Archives

Research

Posted on Sunday, July 25, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Even if you are writing fiction, you may find you need to do research. You wouldn’t want to have Fifth Avenue in Manhattan running north and south. Your readers would call you on it. It’s more accurate to say it…

Tagged with: characters jobs, Research, settings, writing, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

Brainstorming

Posted on Sunday, July 18, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Brainstorming is the process we use to come up with ideas. We can then use those ideas to write about or to come up with the solutions to problems. You can do it in teams or solo. That’s what’s nice…

Mystery Plotting Aids

Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

If you write mysteries, you need to have a victim, a killer, and some red herring suspects. You also need witnesses. When I started writing cozy mysteries, I had a hard time until I came up with the idea of…

Tagged with: fiction, fiction mystery, fiction writing, mysteries, mystery plotting, mystery plotting tools, plots, plotting tools, writing
Posted in Writing Techniques

Why Complete Character Charts?

Posted on Sunday, June 27, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Character charts are lists of questions that a fiction author must answer. It’s a good way to get to know their characters. The charts are the best way for an author to get to know the character and what makes…

Timelines and Plots

Posted on Sunday, June 20, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Time lines are useful things. They can help you keep the timing of your story going. I’ve used them to plot the story in broad terms. This is something like saying this happens then this happens and so on. It…

Tagged with: plot flow, plots, plotting, timelines, writing
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

Using A Project Control Document

Posted on Sunday, June 13, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Project Control It is important to keep your writing organized. I use a Word document to let me know what part of the project I have finished and what I still need to do. I have sections in the document.…

Word Choice

Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Have you ever read a book or story and wondered why the author chose the words they did? If you have, then the author failed. You popped out of the story because of questionable word choices. I once read a…

Tagged with: casual, casual writing, formal, formal writing, word choice, words, writing, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

Total Immersion

Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

What you are looking for in writing your scenes is the total immersion of your reader into the story. This is what the past few blogs have been leading up to. I designed them that way so I could use…

Tagged with: describe, description, word choice, words, writing, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

Planning To Write

Posted on Sunday, May 9, 2021 by pebblepup — 2 Comments

Give me something to write and the words pour out of me. I make up the topics for my blogs in advance. Then I schedule time to write them. That’s how I do it. I know there are pantsers out…

Tagged with: project planning, writing, writing planning, Writing Tech
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

Where Do Your Ideas Come From?

Posted on Sunday, April 25, 2021 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Writers are always asked where their ideas come from. I’ve never been sure how to answer that. I suppose the most truthful answer is, “I have no idea.” I truly don’t. Some days I wake up with an idea in…

Tagged with: idea, Idea generation, ideas, writing, writing idea generation, writing ideas, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques