Ed’s Casual Friday: 10 Writing Commandments

The Ten CommandmentsOne of the noble goals here at Indies Unlimited is to help other writers along this dark and winding road of putting words down on paper. (Okay, I know. Only six people still write by hand, but bear with me). And of course after that, we’re all hoping to sell those words to the legions of eager readers who have been waiting their whole lives to partake of our literary mastery and storytelling prowess, whether they know it or not (they don’t).

Here at IU, and in every other place writers gather for that matter, that help is rendered in large part by giving advice. Most often, unsolicited advice. And that’s great, as we are all at different points along our writing road, and nobody has been doing this whole Indie/Digital publishing thing for more than a handful of years. Everybody has some experience they are willing (and sometimes falling over themselves) to share. If you can count on nothing else as a writer, you can be sure that somebody out there is going to tell you how they do this most individual and internal process of creation, and why you should do it their way, too. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: 10 Writing Commandments”

Words, and how to love them…

Author Valerie Douglas
Author Valerie Douglas

If any topic was foreordained to write, it was this one.  (No, I didn’t mean preordained, although I could have used that as well. *grins*)

First I saw this quote from Roy Blount, Jr. – “The last time somebody said, ‘I find I can write much better with a word processor.’, I replied, ‘They used to say the same thing about drugs.’ ”

Then I opened a lovely e-mail from a fan, the last line of which said, “Your book was fun and refreshingly intelligent in the genre (erotica), and therefore it not only made me happy to read it, but kind of renewed my faith that you can still write romance novels using wonderful words like ‘sere’.'” Wasn’t that wonderful? I wonder what she’ll do when she finds out that in the sequel the heroine is a physics professor who quotes string theory to explain magic? (And sere is a wonderful word, isn’t it?) Continue reading “Words, and how to love them…”

Meet the Author: Ressa Empbra

Author Ressa Empbra

Ressa Empbra says of her writing, “I have to have coffee, peace, quiet, and my MacBook. It sounds weird but I lay my head back in my leather-chair, close my eyes and let the words flow from my mind, down my arms, out of my fingertips, and onto my keyboard. It’s like having a movie playing inside my head and I don’t know what will happen until it does. Some writers make a story-board, outlines, stuff like that, and I’m sure it works well for them. But, I can’t work that way, not when I haven’t ‘seen’ what will happen next.”

She says her characters feel like they truly are a part of her from the beginning, so she gives them free reign to do as they please. “They do get into trouble from time to time,” she adds.

Ressa has some health issues which, along with medications, scramble and wipe out her memory, so her biggest writing challenge is in remembering small details.  She deals with this by making lots of notes. I do that as well, but then I forget where I put the notes. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Ressa Empbra”

Kristen James Announces New Release

How to be a Full-Time Writer, by Kristen James

Friend and author Kristen James contacted me with some exciting news about her latest release:

“Hi Stephen, I wanted to share my new release with you, called How to Be A Full Time Writer. I thought some of your fans might find it useful if they’re interested in using writing to earn money outside of writing fiction, or even with ghostwriting fiction. It’s how I created my work from home job.”

Continue reading “Kristen James Announces New Release”