Blog
Creating an Author Business Plan: Professional Development
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) This week marks the final installment in the series I’ve been running at Fiction University about writing our author business plan. I think this final section is one of the most important for independent authors. Self-published books still have a bad reputation among many because too many independent authors put out(…)
5 Creepy Sea Animals You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Welcome back to my unbelievable real life feature. Usually I focus on a single weird place or creature in our world, but today I thought it might be fun to give you a list of five incredibly strange underwater animals. #1 – The Red-Lipped Bat Fish This odd-looking fellow hails from(…)
Q & A: What Type of Editing Does Your Book Need?
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) I’m starting a new monthly feature here on my blog where I answer your questions. If you’d like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to my contact form to send me an email. To inaugurate this new venture, I’ve decided to answer a question I receive a(…)
Helpful Ways to Deal with Dream Crushers
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Definition of a Dream-Crusher: A person who attempts to discourage or stands in the way of someone else pursuing their dream. This isn’t a post about The Fantastic Four movie (which was mediocre at best), but I started thinking about dream-crushers because of a scene at the beginning of that movie.(…)
Three Surprising Writing Problems Solved By Understanding Internal Dialogue
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Today marks the end of my summer blogging travels, where I have some fun by guest posting at other sites. While I still guest post a little during the rest of the year, it’s significantly less than in the summer months. Next month, my regular blogging schedule returns. For my final(…)
Creating Our Author Business Plan: Book by Book Marketing
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) The marketing section of our author business plan is unique in that we need to think about our overall marketing strategy as well as the specific marketing activities we’re going to use for each individual book we produce. Last month I talked about developing our overall marketing plan, and this month(…)
5 Reasons Internal Dialogue is Essential in Fiction
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Understanding why something is important to our writing lays the foundation for bettering our writing because it acts as a measuring post. When we know why we should do something and what benefit we’re supposed to gain by doing it, it helps us recognize when we’re not receiving that benefit. Please(…)
5 Techniques for Amazing Internal Dialogue
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) If I took a survey asking writers what the most important elements of fiction were, I’d probably end up with a few consistent answers—plot, characters, dialogue, showing rather than telling. We might not automatically think of including internal dialogue on the list, but we should. Internal dialogue is the heartbeat of(…)
7 Ways to Make Yourself a Better Writer in 7 Days
By Marcy Kennedy (@marcykennedy) I wanted to take a quick break from posts on writing craft topics and instead give you a list of fresh techniques to help you become a better writer. Do one of these each day in the coming week, and you’ll improve as a writer in ways that can’t be learned(…)
How to Use Your Logline, Tagline, and Pitch to Create a Stronger Story
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy) Most of us think of a logline, tagline, and pitch as marketing tools we write after we’ve written our story so that we can use them to land an agent or as our book’s cover copy. We’re doing it backwards. If we wait until we’re done with our book, any problems(…)