Blog
Selecting POV Characters and 7 Tips to Make the Most of Working with a Cover Designer
Last month, I talked about how to find the right cover designer for our project. Unfortunately, once we’ve selected our cover designer, it doesn’t mean everything will move forward smoothly or well, even if our cover designer is both talented and professional. Why? Well, a business relationship is still a relationship. That means a large(…)
My Favorite Science Fiction Book of 2015
If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you know I don’t tend to “endorse” books very often. I see so many books, both through my work as an editor and through my own personal reading, that it takes something special to be good enough for me to talk about it. But as you might(…)
Becoming Your Point-of-View Character
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Point of view frustrates a lot of writers–new and old alike. Today I’m over at Writers in the Storm sharing one of my best tricks for how to avoid point-of-view errors. I’ll give you the secret here: You have to become your viewpoint character. For an explanation of what the means(…)
How to Hunt Down Sneaky Point-of-View Errors
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) One of my favorite writing craft topics is point of view because, when we master point of view, it solves so many other writing problems. Properly executing point of view immediately strengthens our writing, makes it more immersive, and gives lightbulb moments for many other writing elements. (If you want to(…)
How to Find and Select a Cover Designer
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Making sure my books had covers that would attract readers rather than turn them away has been one of the scariest parts of independent publishing for me. Readers do judge books by their covers. An ugly or unprofessional cover can make a reader pass on our book regardless of how great(…)
How to Win More Fans Through Storytelling
I’m excited to welcome a special guest poster today–Bryan Cohen. I originally “met” Bryan through a request to guest post on my blog a couple of years ago, and since then I’ve been privileged to take part in three March to a Bestseller events with him. Today, he’s back on my blog again to share(…)
The Inevitable Truth of Life–Things Go Wrong
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) How do you face the difficult times in life? Over the weekend, my husband and I went to see The Martian, and this is the question I walked away with. In The Martian, Mark Watney is part of the team of astronauts who went on a Mars mission. Due to a(…)
March to a Bestseller 3 – Great Writing Resources
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) I’m honored to once again be participating in the semi-annual March to a Bestseller event run by Bryan Cohen. I love this event because it brings writers a bunch of high-quality books about writing and publishing for an affordable price (99 cents each). And to make it even better, on the(…)
7 Reasons Understanding Point of View is Essential to Writing Great Fiction
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) When we talk about point of view, we basically mean the perspective from which the story is told. Who are we listening to when we read the story? Whose head are we in? Whose eyes are we watching the story through? Point of view isn’t merely another writing craft technique. Point(…)
Top 10 Dialogue Mistakes that Kill Your Story
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Awkward or boring dialogue can make readers cringe and toss our books aside to find something better. A few months ago, I wrote a post called 10 Writing Mistakes that Kill Your First Chapter. Because of how much everyone liked that post, I decided to do a follow up. So today(…)