Young Adult, YA Fiction, YA Contemporary, The Stories Stars Tell Cami Young Adult, YA Fiction, YA Contemporary, The Stories Stars Tell Cami

The Stories Stars Tell: It's Here!

The Stories Stars Tell has published!

The Stories Stars Tell has published!

After 16 months of work, The Stories Stars Tell is here. I’m so excited to hand it over to you.

Here’s what I can’t wait to see from you:

  • Honest reviews (post one on Goodreads, amazon, or any other book platform)

  • Pictures of you reading or of the book (be sure to tag me or send them to me)

  • To know how the story inspired you.

  • Who were your favorite characters?

Look for a giveaway and a read-along in November (my birthday month!)

Read More
Book Marketing, Book Playlist, Books for boys, Books for Teen Boys, Books for Teens, Books to Read, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Coming of Age, Conflict, Fiction, fiction - mental health, Independent Author, New Fiction, Playlist, Swimming Sideways, Teen Books, The Bones of Who We Are, The Ugly Truth, YA Contemporary, YA Series, YALit, Young Adult Cami Book Marketing, Book Playlist, Books for boys, Books for Teen Boys, Books for Teens, Books to Read, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Coming of Age, Conflict, Fiction, fiction - mental health, Independent Author, New Fiction, Playlist, Swimming Sideways, Teen Books, The Bones of Who We Are, The Ugly Truth, YA Contemporary, YA Series, YALit, Young Adult Cami

Indie Author Marketing: Update No. 7

If I thought I didn’t know if I was coming or going last week, this week it’s all about staying put. I’ve had to park it. At home. Social Distancing. And with no end in site, it makes me wonder what’s to come? Well, hopefully I’ll offer some interesting content. Here’s a vlog brought to you from the inside of my bathroom (LOL) as I reflect about this week.

In the grand scheme of my Independent Author Book Marketing road trip, the vehicle sort of stalled on the side of the road. I got pulled over by the police and escorted to the next motel where I’ve been directed to hang out for the next couple of weeks. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Great. What does this mean for book marketing? Long term, I don’t know. My events might be shot. Short term, I’ve got Social Media.

One of the things I mention in the vlog was publishing the Book Playlists on Instagram for each of the books in The Cantos Chronicles. One of the biggest necessities of marketing is identifying the target audience. As a YA Writer, I’m speaking to teens, specifically 16-18 year olds (though I’m beginning to wonder since my books seem to have a crossover adult appeal. This begs the question: am I marketing to the correct audience?) Since art of all kinds speaks so loudly to me, and every teen I have known speaks music, I decided a playlist might be a solid interactive experience).

I’ve begun to consider that this isn’t a short term game, but a long one. I’m in the process of building a relationship with readers. That’s going to take time and consistency. So while we might be “In the Wait” (Oh hey, head over to Wattpad to read those short vignettes if you’re interested in them), I need to continue to be vigilant in offering the strongest content I can to showcase who I am as a writer and as a person.

Rerelease day for The Cantos Chronicles is right around the corner (March 31, 2020) though they are available for PreOrder. Two more weeks!

Next Week: Indie Author Marketing: Update No. 8

Read More
Book Club Read, Book Marketing, Books for boys, Books for Teen Boys, Books for Teens, Books to Read, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Coming of Age, Fiction, fiction - mental health, Independent Author, New Fiction, Swimming Sideways, Teen Books, The Bones of Who We Are, The Ugly Truth, writing process, YA Contemporary, YALit, Young Adult, YA Series Cami Book Club Read, Book Marketing, Books for boys, Books for Teen Boys, Books for Teens, Books to Read, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Coming of Age, Fiction, fiction - mental health, Independent Author, New Fiction, Swimming Sideways, Teen Books, The Bones of Who We Are, The Ugly Truth, writing process, YA Contemporary, YALit, Young Adult, YA Series Cami

Indie Author Marketing: Update No. 5

The new covers are here!

The new covers are here!

The covers to The Cantos Chronicles are out! Swimming Sideways, The Ugly Truth and The Bones of Who We Are look glorious both online and in person, because guess what came in the mail this week!?!? The books. The reveal video is an agenda item for this coming week.

The cover reveals and the book trailer were the biggest agenda items for this fifth week on the Indie Marketing Journey. It was a giant mountain with several switch back hairpin turns, but we made it! Several days removed, I’m happy, hopeful and grateful for the reception of the covers and the trailer reinforcing the efforts I made this month, though gains will remain to be seen.

What else did I work on this week?

  1. My March Newsletter has been written and scheduled. One of my goals with the newsletter is to make it beneficial for people to sign up, so I offer items that only subscribers are provided. This month my subscribers are automatically entered into the next giveaway promotion as well as receive a deleted scene from Swimming Sideways that didn’t make it into the final version. I hope that things like this provide subscribers with the “extra” they are looking for by being subscribers.

  2. After making sure the March blitz is planned and ready, I’m in the process now of planning out the content for this coming month. If the first four weeks was about building the bond between readers and the characters of the books, this second four weeks will be about maintaining the connection, trying to create visibility, and generating excitement.

  3. My social media goals have also shifted some. While I am maintaining my author support system on IG, I am activity working to connect with my target audience. Last week, I wrote about posting to wattpad unsure about the cost-benefit analysis, but I can provide anecdotal evidence that I have had more people reading. Has this translated to people interested in committing to The Cantos Chronicles? I’m not sure yet, but I am hopeful.

Are you enjoying the journey with me? What have you tried? What are you thinking about? Talk to me so I don’t fall asleep at the wheel. Be sure to leave a comment. Oh, and would you turn up that song on the car radio too: “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee.

Next Week: Indie Author Marketing Update No. 6


Read More
Book Marketing, Book Playlist, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Fiction, Independent Author, Playlist, Swimming Sideways, The Bones of Who We Are, The Letters She Left, The Ugly Truth, Writer, Writer's Life, Young Adult Cami Book Marketing, Book Playlist, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Fiction, Independent Author, Playlist, Swimming Sideways, The Bones of Who We Are, The Letters She Left, The Ugly Truth, Writer, Writer's Life, Young Adult Cami

Indie Author Marketing: Update No. 3

There are peaks and valleys in every journey. The rise toward the viewpoint and the turnout that allows for us to park the car, check out the vista with a deep breath of appreciation and think: Wow. Look how far we’ve come. Conversely, there are valleys, the dips in the journey where we drive into the depths of the unknown where doubt has the opportunity to creep in and make us wonder if we’re on the right road? It’s a good time to pull out a map, except we don’t have one.

So Nevada…

So Nevada…

I’m in a valley on this marketing journey this week, spinning my wheels in the muddy terrain and wondering if I’m going to make it to the next peak. (Anyone got a song for me to cue up? Right now, I’m listening to our Spotify playlist “Indie Author Marketing Road Trip” to keep me moving forward “Grow as We Go” by Ben Platt. Drop it in the comments to give me a song of encouragement. :)

I am discouraged.

Allow me to be clear. I’m not discouraged by the support (family, friends, IG community is wonderful). I’m discouraged that engagement is down and I keep thinking “What more can you do? There must be something!” But I’m lost in this dark part of the valley where I don’t know. This doubt is rooted in the work I did for The Letters She Left Behind - the clue game giveaway which was a fun marketing idea that didn’t inspire as much engagement as I had hoped. I’m certainly grateful for those that did participate and two awesome winners resulted. Engagement has been worse this month as I attempt to build connection to The Cantos Chronicles with new and existing content. I’m terrified my spinning wheels are only making me sink deeper into the muck.

What does this all mean in the larger picture of being an independent author?

Upon reflection, I don’t think the answer is black and white but shades of variation. Here’s some thoughts I had this week:

  1. I’m being impatient. The perfectionist in me is also looking at the effort and expecting a specific outcome. Truth is, I’m new at this. Why would I have expected The Letters She Left Behind Clue Giveaway to create more engagement when people are only beginning to learn about me & my writing? In all of the research I’ve done about marketing of anything, instant success isn’t a thing (even if I want it to be). I need to be patient and persistent.

  2. Social media is only one tool at my disposal. Perhaps I’m not using all of the tools available effectively enough? I spend a lot of time on Instagram, but maybe that isn’t where to find my readers (even if I’ve connected with a wonderful community of writers). In considering my target audience: where are they? Maybe instagram, yes, but maybe I need to widen the search.

  3. Set backs - being stuck in the mud - isn’t a reason to give up; time to dig deeper and find the work around.

So what did I get to this week:

  1. I maintained my February approach to The Cantos Chronicles, offering new content interspersed with existing excerpts from the three books. I’m using a mixture of Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook, but as I mentioned earlier engagement is low and I haven’t found the magic elixir. Though I’m using a variety of hashtags rotating different ones, posting consistently I haven’t found a way to engage a majority of the followers I have.

  2. I did research on 301c Charities in my area. This is because my local Barnes and Noble is interested in using the charity as a draw for book sales. It’s a great idea. The charity benefits by bringing in patrons because they get a percent of the proceeds. Win-win-win for all three parties. My next step will be to craft letters to the charities are a good fit.

  3. I finalized the letters to teachers in my area. Now it is a matter of determining forward action: selecting schools, teachers, and timing. With the school year drawing to a close, timing might be an issue.

  4. I finalized plans for the March Social Media Blitz. Now it’s time to draft the information my March Blitzers will need and get it to them.

  5. I finished the Book Trailer. I plan to unveil that after the covers are revealed February 25. Look for the trailer next week.

That’s the week in review. While I might be stuck in the muck as an independent author marketer, I feel like I’m standing on top of the world as a creator: I finished my fifth book! And that reminds me why I am doing this: so I can keep doing this.

Until the next peak, my friends. Could you help me push the car out of the muddy terrain so we can get back underway to find it. Happy writing.

Next Week: Indie Marketing Update No. 4

Read More
Adult Fiction, Books to Read, Character, CL Walters, Fiction, Romance, Romance Novel, The Letters She Left, Writer, Writer's Life, writing process Cami Adult Fiction, Books to Read, Character, CL Walters, Fiction, Romance, Romance Novel, The Letters She Left, Writer, Writer's Life, writing process Cami

The Letters She Left Behind: Character Interview

theletterssheleftbehind_updated.jpg

The sun is shining on a December day in Hawaiʻi. Palm trees sway in a trade wind breeze and it’s balmy but cool, enough so that a light sweater is comfortable. Adam Kāne and Alexandra James agreed to take some time out of their busy schedules to speak with me about their starring roles in an upcoming novel, The Letters She Left Behind. This isn’t the first time I’ve met them. We met for the first time about sixteen years ago, then again just shy of a calendar year during the most recent revision of the story.

Having lived in Hawaiʻi most of their lives, both of them embody the lifestyle. Adam arrives first. He’s a Hawaiian local, born and raised on Oʻahu. He arrives like the gentle trade winds, calm and cool, as much a part of the landscape as the ocean shoreline he surfs, or the razor-sharp mountains that cut the sky. Dressed casually in black chinos and a white v-neck tee, people stop and greet him at our table. He seems to know everyone and people are drawn to him, but it isn’t just his manner of dress or his handsome demeanor. His smile is bright infectious, reaches his brown eyes drawing in those he talks to and makes it easy to spill secrets. In fact, he is more apt to listen rather than talk though he has so many things about which he can discuss.

Alex - arriving from her job as a gender studies professor at Hawaiʻi State University - wasn’t born in Hawaiʻi. Actually, she admits to being born on the East coast of the US, then moved across country with her family when she was around five to California. That’s where she met Megan (Adam’s late wife), who she refers to as her sister. Like Adam, she embodies island living. Her sleeveless coral linen dress translates not only to local but equally to those students she might be teaching who aren’t from Hawaiʻi. While I observed her and her conversation with Adam, I had the feeling I was the one being observed. Perhaps a bit of a chameleon, Alex is able to fit right into the moment of the interview, but it’s easy to imagine how she might command an auditorium full of students. She is independent, passionate and intelligent.

I was taken with their story. It stuck with me for sixteen years, so it made sense why I’d want to take some time to connect with them in the aftermath.

Thank you, Adam and Alex, for agreeing to talk with me about The Letters She Left Behind. I know that living in my head has probably been a bit stifling. Was it worth the wait?

Adam: Definitely. I’m a patient guy.

Alex: Sure, though it’s difficult sitting around and waiting for you to get your act together.

Hahaha! Wow. Okay. Why do I feel like there’s more in those answers than meets the eye.

Alex: I’m not one for being passive aggressive, CL, but you did write the story. You know.

Adam: (chuckles and shakes his head): Patience is a virtue. So is biting one’s tongue when necessary.

Moving on then. Without giving any spoilers, what do you like best about your story?

Alex:  Megan. While she doesn’t make a huge appearance in the story, her part in the journey is equally important to the entire narrative on so many levels. I love that about her starring role. The way it all comes together.

Adam: Me too. I also like how there is the sense of time. The way life works sometimes to bend and twist in order to get you where you need to go when the timing is just right. It’s like as much as you might want something right now, it isn’t the right time for it.

Kind of like this story. Sixteen years ago, when I wrote it, I was in my early thirties and here I was writing about grief and second chances. Perhaps I needed additional time and world view to draw the story together. On another note, there’s this point in the narrative when both of you see yourself - or the truth of who you are - outside of the fear. Can you comment on how that moment or moments like that are impactful.

Adam: I know exactly the moment you’re referencing, though I would say I had more than one of these sort of ah ha moments. It’s like that one step forward, two steps back paradigm. A person discovers a truth about themselves. Moves forward and then regresses until another discovery occurs. I think most times, for me anyway, those self-discoveries or facing those honest truths can be painful, which is why we regress.

Alex: I think so too, which is why sometimes we don’t face them. It’s easier just to stay in one place because the threat of change might be more than we can accept.  I know that for my part in the story, this fear of things being different was paralyzing.

I love that scene - when you walk into the ocean, Alex. It was pivotal for your character.

Alex: Yes. Truly makes the difference in the overall movement of my journey.

What about you, Adam? Is there a pivotal scene for your character?

Adam: There are a few, but I don’t want to give anything away by sharing them. I can say at the beginning of the story, I’ve been in a tailspin of grief for nearly a year. I’m raw at the opening, at the precipice of either burying myself in it completely, or doing something different. Megan’s journals were pivotal for me. Without them - well, there wouldn’t be a story.

Let’s talk a little bit about place and culture. As a Hawaiian, Adam, do you think your ethnicity is relevant to the story?

Adam: Not so much. I think I represent a Hawaiian male, but I don’t necessarily embody the cultural values of being Hawaiian, if that makes sense. In all fairness, I would add that who I am is on the edge of understanding my own Hawaiian identity. With the loss of language and culture, how does one rediscover those losses when you’re disconnected from them?

Alex: Do you think that lack of culture then misrepresents you in the story?

Adam: No. I feel like it accurately represents that it is a missing piece in my life, but more could be done to explore that. Maybe not in this story, but perhaps in others. But I think place is explored and the usage of  ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi vocabulary which add depth to an understanding that Hawaiʻi is more than a tourist destination.

Funny you mention stories to explore that. I’m working on a story for Trey. I don’t know if it will be a short story or longer - beginning stages - but that idea of cultural rediscovery is a theme I’m noticing as I work on it. Speaking of secondary characters, who do you think will be a fan favorite?

Adam: The kids.

Alex: The kids.

Neither of you are partial… Why the kids?

Alex: Each of them are unique and bring a whole different dimension to the story. Without them, I think the story wouldn’t be as layered.

Adam: I agree. I’d like to see them all with their own stories.

What are you hoping happens with your story?

Alex: I hope that a reader can close the book and feel like “Wow, I don’t need to worry about that thing anymore.” I think it’s easy to get caught up in the minutia of our lives and forget the big picture, the what’s really important.

Adam: That! Yes. And to remember that life is a journey. It doesn’t stop. It moves forward and we move along the timeline with it. Sometimes we’re blindsided, sometimes we’re broken, but always the timeline continues. Something else I hope people remember - we can’t live it alone. Along the way, we need those special people to share it with in some capacity.

Thank you for hanging out in my head for a bit.

Look for The Letters She Left Behind on sale 1/14/20

Read More
Books for boys, Books for Teen Boys, Books for Teens, Books to Read, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Coming of Age, Fiction, fiction - mental health, Swimming Sideways, Teen Books, The Bones of Who We Are, The Ugly Truth, Young Adult, writing process, New Fiction, Am Writing, Writer's Life Cami Books for boys, Books for Teen Boys, Books for Teens, Books to Read, Cantos Chronicles, CL Walters, Coming of Age, Fiction, fiction - mental health, Swimming Sideways, Teen Books, The Bones of Who We Are, The Ugly Truth, Young Adult, writing process, New Fiction, Am Writing, Writer's Life Cami

The Bones of Who We Are: A Difficult Story

TBOWWA Quote Card 12.jpg

My father - my rock - passed away in October 2017. I miss him everyday. I didn’t think I would ever find the words to write again. When I tried, all that made it to the page were visceral and painful images of where I was stuck: my cave. About six months later, I was sitting at a traffic light and heard Abby say “I need you to write my story.” The pilot light was relit, and I found my way through a new draft of SWIMMING SIDEWAYS. 

The summer of 2018, with SWIMMING SIDEWAYS and THE UGLY TRUTH drafted, I went home to Oregon for a month to help my mom and sister go through my father’s things. Most of the month was spent broken-hearted, trudging through necessary spaces. I cleaned the garage breathing in my father’s work space and going through each of his tools. This was something my mother wasn’t going to be able to do. My dad and his workshop were symbiotic; he could fix anything, and his workshop reflected this. So, immersion in his workshop, going through each of his toolboxes and trinkets, the jars of things he saved because they’d come in handy one day, cracked me open. Somehow, in the breaking of my heart and the diligent reorganization of his things, I was able to assemble the broken parts of myself back together. It was during this four weeks in Oregon that I began drafting Gabe’s story, and as I stitched myself back together, Gabe’s began to unravel.

I’ve warned readers that Gabe’s story isn’t an easy story to experience, and that is because THE BONES OF WHO WE ARE deals with heavy topics: bullying, depression, identity, loss, grief. Maybe in a way, the loss of my father is reflected in the pain of Gabe. My pain became his, though Gabe’s story was always this, I just couldn’t write it before. The pivotal scene in the book - the reason Gabe is who he is - was written back in 2009, eight years before I lost my father; nine years before I went through his workshop and faced my own undoing. 

Perhaps, I was never going to be equipped to tell Gabe’s story without understanding the complete loss of someone so essential to my own identity. Perhaps, sitting inside my father’s workshop by myself allowed me to grasp loss, life, and grief in a way I never would have without that struggle. As writers our life experiences impact the depth of our knowledge. Virginia Woolf wrote, “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.” So, I suppose by realizing how painful it was to look at my father’s empty steel-toed work boots and be slammed with the awareness of how much I missed him, it forced me to jump into the deep end of loss. When the only thing I could do was climb into bed and bury myself in romance novels because those stories were as much as I could handle to not sink and drown, I found a way to tread water. Perhaps, this trial was the only way I was ever going to be able to empathize with Gabe’s experience. 

THE BONES OF WHO WE ARE isn’t an easy story, but then life, love, loss, grief never are. That is the truth of what it means to be human. We hurt, but there is power in the warmth of hope. That - the hope - is what my father would have loved about Gabe’s story.

NEXT WEEK: A Letter from Gabe to readers

Read More
Fiction, Books to Read, Conflict, Elements of Literature, Swimming Sideways, writing process, Young Adult, The Ugly Truth, Pacing, CL Walters Cami Fiction, Books to Read, Conflict, Elements of Literature, Swimming Sideways, writing process, Young Adult, The Ugly Truth, Pacing, CL Walters Cami

Pacing the Narrative: A New Tool

Look up “pacing your novel” on the internet, and you’ll hit a list of links page after page. It’s a topic about which writers are curious and hopeful of answers. The conundrum is, however, there isn’t a quick and true “fix” to pace. A range of techniques from developing conflict and tension to literary devices like dialogue, imagery, and syntax (personal usage of language) are presented as means to achieve the elixir for pace. There’s a plethora of information out there.

Writer's Digest: Pacing
Every writer has a toolbox built over the years of developing craft. Again, Stephen King talks about this extensively.

Every writer has a toolbox built over the years of developing craft. Again, Stephen King talks about this extensively.

So, instead of write about pacing from the same lens of what’s already been offered, I thought I’d draw from my writer’s toolbox and cover a technique I learned and have used directly related to pacing.

First and foremost, as Stephen King has impressed upon us in his On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft, read, read and read some more. There is no better way to become a better writer (other than to write). Studying authors you like, different genres, “listening” to the beats of writing with a writer’s ear is the first and best way to develop your own style which includes pacing. This is not an easy fix, just a necessary truth.

That said, here’s a tool from my own TOOLBOX: Compression and Expansion

Several years ago, I attended a workshop called Write Your Life by Mark W. Travis (Hollywood Director; see his books about directing, writing, and writing structure). The purpose of the workshop was to explore autobiographical storytelling, and while it was geared toward oral storytelling it supported the art of writing the story. Two terms Mr. Travis taught were the ideas of Compression and Expansion both of which I have found useful in the art of pacing.

Compression does exactly what it sounds like: compress or press together in the case of story time.  Consider in a movie the idea of a montage (i.e., a training montage in an action film, or the makeover trope in a romance film) and the way the visuals are pieced together to showcase the passage of time. Compression does this in a written form, highlighting key moments to compress the passage of time into something small and powerful.

Expansion is the opposite. It takes a key moment and expands it, highlighting its importance for the character, conflict, and theme. Visually, in a film, this might be a slow motion moment or a flashback. Expansion as a technique of writing follows a similar pattern as compression, highlighting key words and ideas to expand the idea into something meaningful.

The ideas in practice using work I’ve written would look like the following excerpts from my novels Swimming Sideways and The Ugly Truth. First determine a scene which you feel would benefit from either technique and determine if you want to highlight the passage of time - compress it - or the importance of a moment - expand it.

Compression (from The Ugly Truth):

In the following scene, Seth, the protagonist, has become aware of himself and the fact his consciousness is outside of his physical body. The compression used in this scene was meant to compress an unknown amount of time for him because time has stopped making logical sense:

 The wail of the siren.  

Words: “Stay with us, Seth.”

The wail of a woman (I think she is my mother).

Bright lights.

Beeps and blips of equipment speaking.

Drip.

“Swelling.”

“Induced coma.”

Doctors.

Whir.

Now.

I don’t think it has been very long. If I use the emotion of the woman I think is my mother’s gusts of grief as a measure, this seems recent.

Expansion (from Swimming Sideways):

The following scene is the moment the audience learns what happens to Abby in her past as she attends a party with her friend, Seth. Though the moment explores a party she attended in her past and the subsequent trauma of it, instead of glossing over the idea in a few sentences or a paragraph to tell what happened, I expanded it to heighten the drama of the whole scene.


 I close my eyes and slip backwards in time:

Have another drink.

Feeling loose.

Kanoa is staring at me.

Giddy with his attention.

Another drink. He brings it to me.

Laughter.

Kanoa is all-encompassing. I’ve seen him at school. He’s older.

He asks me to dance.

Pressed up against me, the dance is slow. I feel his body. The ache of want.

A kiss and my heart dances too.

Here, have another drink.

Drown the pain and grief of losing Poppa.

I return to the dance with Seth and shudder. He leans back, lifts my face to look at him. He’s smiling, until he realizes I’m crying. “What’s wrong?” he says.

I shake my head, unable to speak and bury my head against his chest as I return to the past:

Another dance. Another drink. I feel loose.

I feel dizzy. Where are my friends?

Here’s another drink. Kanoa. He’s there.

Have another. Drink up.

Where are my friends?

Inhibition dissipates like steam from a boiling pot.

Fast song.

Kanoa dancing with me.

“Dance for me,” he says.

People encircle us.

The crowd chants my name but they slip away as I move; a show for Kanoa.

Kanoa pulls at my shirt. I help him take it off.

His hands all over my now bare skin.

His undivided attention. His smile.

I dance. He helps me, his hands guiding my hips.

The crowd cheers.

I didn't know there were cameras.

A show for everyone.

It was too late.

Where are my friends?

In a viral moment, I became the resident slut of my high school.

Writing is about making choices to propel our goal as writers of telling the best story we can. My goals for using these techniques were to:

  1. pace the content,

  2. highlight the importance of the moment in the narrative,

  3. add to and build tension, and

  4. finally to continue developing characters.

Is it directly related to pacing? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Practice Point:  Choose a moment in your current WIP to expand or compress. Reread the section with the addition. What does it do for pacing and flow?

NEXT UP: Dialogue

RSS Block
Select a Blog Page to create an RSS feed link. Learn more






Read More

Latest Posts

Featured
The Cipher of Tolo
Read More →
Bring Back the Dystopian Craze of 2012
Read More →
Substack Cover.png
Imposter Syndrome: Tools for Authenticty
Read More →
56720D86-1135-4EDE-A90F-62CD817669A0_1_201_a.jpg
June Read Along: In the Echo of this Ghost Town
Read More →
The-Messy-Truth-About-Love-Apple.jpg
New Post on SubStack tomorrow!
Read More →
Gabe.png
March Read Along: The Bone of Who We Are
Read More →
Seth.png
February Read Along: The Ugly Truth
Read More →
2CDFB325-65E1-4EE3-8BEA-DF993197284A.png
2024: Year of the Read Along
Read More →
9D936C3D-EE6A-4591-9ED6-A66F83B6373C.jpeg
Unhealthy Relationships and Romance Books
Read More →
0F2F4A8D-5652-4EE1-A56C-8E95D7646A29.JPG
Relationships: Isolation versus Autonomy
Read More →