By Sharla Rae I’m sharing not one list today, but two. The first one covers shades of the basic color spectrum. The second deals with adjectives describing color and the possible “conditions” of color, that is, how it’s used. But Writing in living color is more than just knowing and choosing color descriptions. It’s showing […]

By Sharla Rae One of the things we've discussed in our critique meetings is the tendency all writers have to repeat certain words and phrases. “Echoes” is a term I’ve heard applied to frequently repeated words. Read your chapter out loud, and that’s exactly what they sound like. Common Causes of Echoes: Helpful Echo-Zapping Sites […]

It’s your first sentence. The opening line to your masterpiece. The words that will grab your reader and pull him into your world. They. Have. To. Be. Perfect. No pressure. We’re not here to give you a lesson in writing the opening hook. But it is May 1st and we thought that was the perfect […]

By Sharla Rae No, I'm not discussing sharks. We're discussing the jawline, and writing facial descriptions and emotions. And …  I have another description list for you, too. Recently in her blog, When Writing Is A Full Body Workout, Orly confessed being caught acting out what she happened to be writing, that is, she was […]

by Sharla Rae The first thing writers learn about Point of View, or POV, is that it refers to whose head we’re in. In other words: through whose perspective will the reader experience the sounds, smells, actions and emotions of a story/scene? Seems simple, but as writers it isn’t always easy to decide which character should […]