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Sheri McGuinn
Feb 191 min read
ouch
Well, I sm typing leftie because I broke my right clavicle when the gravel got me coming down a small slope. Ouch. Fortunately,...
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Sheri McGuinn
Feb 152 min read
The Down sides of Critique
While I advocate participating in a critique group to test your writing and get constructive feedback, there are down sides of critique.
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Sheri McGuinn
Feb 122 min read
What Comes First when You are Writing?
There's no iron-clad rule saying what comes first when you are writing. I throw my characters into a situation and see how they deal with it
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Sheri McGuinn
Feb 83 min read
Free Webinars
Free webinars may be a sales pitch - that doesn't mean they're useless. Webinars by Carla King and Rob Eagar discussed with resource links.
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Sheri McGuinn
Feb 52 min read
Sometimes a character takes over the story
Every character has a bit of the writer in there - even villains. Sometimes a character develops in unexpected ways and takes over the story
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Sheri McGuinn
Feb 11 min read
How Much Description
In On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King says "Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's."
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 292 min read
Writing Daily?
Are you serious about writing if you're not writing daily?... I am a project-based worker. I can maintain a regular writing routine for a
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 252 min read
King's Toolbox
Let's look at King's Toolbox recommendations. The tool used most often goes on top: Vocabulary... Usually the first word... is the best one.
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 222 min read
Reading: The Creative Center
In On Writing, Stephen King says "Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." We develop our ear for language through reading.
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 181 min read
Listen to the Beat
As a young child, I routinely took home a foot-high stack of library books, read them, and returned for a new stack the next week. I was...
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 152 min read
Find Your Joy
The next few blogs, I'm going to pull out quotes from Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and talk about them a bit.
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 112 min read
Listen to Understand
As writers, we listen to understand - whether it's an interview for an article or just eavesdropping on an interesting conversation
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 81 min read
Memory - fact or fiction
Memory may be fact or fiction. This is one of the reasons it's so important to verify facts from multiple sources when writing non-fiction.
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 51 min read
Do we live Multiple Life Stories at once?
There's definitely some kind of time warp that makes people and events from the past seem close as we age...
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Sheri McGuinn
Jan 12 min read
A Satisfying End to 2023
Whether or no that publisher takes the book, their deadline got me to pull it together - a satisfying end to 2023.
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 28, 20232 min read
Reading the Rules
Amongst other things in my email this morning was a link to a short story contest that sounded interesting.... reading the rules came first.
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 25, 20232 min read
Baby Steps Count, It's the Direction That Matters
To help plan next year, I'm going to spend the next week focusing on one of the principles of Kwanza each day... Baby steps count.
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 21, 20232 min read
Writers Revise
Looking back, I accidentally pulled my first all-nighter in fifth grade. When my parents went to bed, I told them I just had to copy my...
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 18, 20231 min read
Writing for your audience: the judge
Always write for your audience. I write social histories for sentence mitigation attorneys. My audience is the judge.
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 14, 20232 min read
Write for Your Audience: Age
Write for your audience: Age. Not every person of a given age is identical, but knowing the age of your audience gives you a starting point.
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 11, 20231 min read
Resource: Alliance of Independent Authors
I frequently recommend that anyone purchasing self-publishing services check the Watch Dog page of ALLi - but there's another reason to go.
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 7, 20231 min read
Write for Your Audience: Family or The World?
Always write for your Audience. The first consideration? Is this just for you, for your family and friends, or do you want the world to...
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Sheri McGuinn
Dec 4, 20232 min read
Use Critique effectively
Recently, I got some excellent critique from a professional editor who is familiar with current trends. This was on the opening of a...
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Sheri McGuinn
Nov 30, 20232 min read
When It's Okay Not to Revise or edit
When is it okay not to revise or edit? When you are the only audience. If you are writing a diary or journal, and have no plans to share...
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