Focusing
Lately, I’ve been a highly distracted ferret creature when I’m supposed to be writing. I’ve got deadlines coming out of my ears right now, so I really need to focus and get my work done. But how?? I’m...
View ArticleHow to Finish Your Book
Hi all! I’m currently on a deadline with my publisher, so I find myself thinking a lot about productivity these days. My deadline is for a first draft, so my focus at the moment is on creating a...
View ArticleRandom writerly advice
I spent all day writing my book and none of the day working on this post, so now I’m doing it at the last minute. (Ooops.) So, here’s some random writerly advice. 1. Take your time. I know that’s...
View ArticleCollaborations 101
Hello, PubCrawlers! Today I’m going to talk about something that some of you may or may not ever contemplate doing, and that is a writing collaboration. There are a lot of ways for a collaboration to...
View ArticleChoosing the Best Length for your Story
Hi all! Julie here, and today I want to talk about how we as writers choose the best length for the stories we tell. As readers, we’ve all come to the end of a story we loved and felt a real sadness...
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CampNaNo Writers! Awesome Authors’ Fast Drafting Tips to Get You Through!
So every year, I try to take on the challenge of fast-drafting during NaNoWriMo – that’s the fab and motivating National Novel Writing Month, traditionally in November, for you newbies. And every time...
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Tracking Your Progress While Outlining and Revising
Hi all! Julie here. Recently I blogged about How to Finish Your Book, focusing on tips on how to get to The End when writing a first draft. In the comments, I was asked a great question about tracking...
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More Hands in the Kitchen: Karuna Riazi on Baking Her Debut With a Book Packager
I‘m playing proud parent on the blog today as we welcome Karuna Riazi, who made her debut last month with the awesome The Gauntlet, a middle grade Jumanji with a South Asian flair. The book is the...
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Writing the Hook: Summing Your Book Up Quick and Why It’s Important
As an agent with a large social circle of writerly friends, I often find myself in that awkward position of helping pals polish up their query letters. I don’t mind. Chances are, if you work in...
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Experimenting With Short Stories
Last month, Julie wrote an excellent blog post about “Choosing the Best Length for Your Story”, and I thought I’d offer another possibility for some writers: experimenting with short stories before...
View ArticleChoosing the Right Narrative Tense/POV
The minute I finished Draft Zero of my upcoming novel, White Rabbit, I was seized with doubt. I had written the entire novel—all 92,000 words—in first-person past tense…but had that been a mistake? The...
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Just think of tomorrow
Procrastination gets a bad rap. I’ve sometimes said that procrastinating is an important part of my writing process. I was only half-joking. Appropriately enough, I’m writing this blog post the morning...
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PubCrawl Podcast: Archetypes, Stereotypes, & Cliches
This week, Kelly and JJ give a little overview about archetypes, stereotypes, and cliches to kick off their Summer of Archetypes. What is the difference between all of these things? Also, they answer...
View ArticleWriting Non-Fiction
Whenever I thought about writing, I always assumed that writing non-fiction would be faster and easier than writing fiction. With fiction, I need a plot. I need a beginning, a middle and an ending. I...
View ArticlePubCrawl Podcast: Query Critique III
This week JJ and Kelly run another query critique podcast! The quality of the submissions were pretty high all around, so barring a few nitpicks, we encourage y’all to keep querying! Also, lots and...
View ArticlePubCrawl Podcast: Archetypes – The Chosen One
This week Kelly and JJ kick off their Summer of Archetypes with The Chosen One. What constitutes a Chosen One narrative? What are some examples? What are examples of a subverted Chosen One? CAN you...
View ArticlePubCrawl Podcast: Archetypes – The Fatal Flaw
This week JJ and Kelly continue their Summer of Archetypes series with The Fatal Flaw! Some museum recommendations! Hamilton also makes a reappearance! Subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud,...
View ArticlePre-Queries And How To Avoid Them
We talk a lot about queries here on Pub Crawl. How to write them, tips and tricks to write them successfully, mistakes to avoid when querying. You name it and at some point one of our fantastic...
View ArticleHow is Writing Like Playing Video Games?
A few years ago, I explored the idea that playing Nintendo games, which are notoriously hard, helped set me up for success as an author. Recently, as I have dived back into my retro-gaming hobby, I’ve...
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NANOWRIMO PREP TIPS: THE OUTLINE IS KEY!
There are two kinds of writers (and people, I’d say) in this world: plotters and pantsers. And for either type, crossing over to the other side is the stuff of nightmares.When it comes to tackling a...
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