Writing – Page 181 – Jean's Writing

Don’t Read Unless You Want to Know

Published on June 6, 2015November 21, 2016 by Jean M. Cogdell13 Comments

You heard right, sometimes the answers smart a bit.

Want some good ole common sense, take no prisoners, tell it like it is advice?

Wow 3 clichés in one sentence. That’s a record for me.

Okay back to the advice.

Chuck Wendig, over at Terrible Minds, has the answers to your most burning questions.

As a successful writer and blogger, it appears as though Chuck has heard them all and now he is ready to share.

Read his post: YOUR MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED WRITING QUESTIONS, ANSWERED!

Don’t expect any hand holding or sweet-talking, no not from Chuck. But do expect a swift kick in the pants if you need to jump-start your writing.

Numbers 4, 6, 11, and 14 are my favorites.

Now where do I start with my letters of apology?

writing5 Dear (insert name), Sorry for bugging you to read, edit, pump me up… .

Damn that’s gonna take too long. Just better take Chuck’s advice and get back to writing.

I love comments, tell me what’s happening with you and if you’re not already, please follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!

How to Wow Readers with Your Book Cover

Published on June 4, 2015June 3, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell4 Comments

This is so on point after yesterday’s post.

Doesn’t matter how good the story if no one notices the book sitting on the shelf.

Publishing is complicated so whenever I discover interesting tips and tricks I want to pass them on to my readers.

Designing a Book Cover That Tells by Christopher Lentz posted at Writers in the Storm explains the importance of book design plus gives a couple of design hacks.

Read his great post and find out what the number 6 has to do with your cover.

Want to know how to design in MS Word? Click and read Joanna Penn’s post-How To Make Your Own Free Book Cover In MS Word

Do not Disturb! Creative Genius at Work

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Navigating Kindle Direct Publishing

Published on June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell1 Comment

Find out how to publish your book on Kindle Direct.

This is must have info for anyone interested in publishing a book on Kindle Direct Publishing. A big thanks goes out to Chris the Story Reading Ape’s Blog for sharing a post written by Lisa Morrow on her official site. I’m sure y’all will be as thrilled as I was to read her tips.

Anyone else out there have tips to make the process easier please let us know!

I love comments, tell me what’s happening with you and if you’re not already, please follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!

Lisa Morrow Official Author Page

Learning to use Kindle Direct Publishing to publish my novel To Kill a Wizard wasn’t nearly as hard as learning to properly format my book for Kindle readers. Both, however, had their challenges, which I’ll share here, as well as, some tips on how I formatted my novel.

Things I learned:

First, I uploaded my book and made sure there were no basic issues.
After that, I looked at how my book actually appeared on my Kindle Previewer. I found I needed to adjust my spacing, indents, and font size, depending on what I thought looked best.
- In “page setup,” I changed the page size to be six-by-nine.
- Then, I had to select a “custom margin” based on the size of my book. I believe I went with the “top,” “bottom,” and “outside” being .5, the “inside” being 0, and the “gutter” being .75.
- I selected “mirror margins” and applied…

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How to Write Yummy Scenes

Published on June 2, 2015June 1, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell2 Comments

I don’t like change.

Gonna be up front about this, I don’t like change and I like things simple and familiar.

Yep, I’m a creature of habit.

Take the grocery store. Why do they have to rearrange the aisles every six months? Just about the time I’ve got shopping down to a science, and can race through the aisles like an Indy 500 driver, the manager decides to move around every damn thing. Why? For the love of God, why?

And adding insult to injury, the store puts in new displays that now makes finding my favorite brand of coffee a new version of finding Waldo. Seamless rows blending Starbucks, Folgers and various boxes in a rainbow of colors that even my reading glasses can’t decipher.

A great article by Michelle Russell over at Write to Done got me to thinking.

If I want readers to come back for more, maybe my writing should be like a box of chocolates, delicious, delectable, yummy and easy to get to.

chocolate baby

Maybe they don’t want scenes that are complicated or hard to follow, that cause them to sit back and scratch their head in confusion.

Just maybe, like me, they prefer reading scenes that are addictive, pleasant, compelling, enjoyable and easy to read.

I don’t know about you but I’m gonna try to write more lip smacking good scenes for my reader to enjoy.

What do you think?

Head over to Write to Done and let me know what you think about Ms. Russell’s article, because… you know I love comments, and if you’re not already, please follow me @jeancogdell on Twitter or jean.cogdell on Facebook!