~How to Extend the Story~ When I started writing my first romantic suspense Beneath the Skin, I had no plans to make it into a series. But it didn’t take long for me to start imagining the lives of the … Continue reading Writing a Series – 6 Tips for Success
~Have You Covered All the Bases?~ Do you know how to legally quote from another writer in your own commercial works? In scholarly works, it is usually acceptable to quote from someone as long as you footnote and include a … Continue reading Don’t Get Sued – How to Get Permission to Quote from Literary Works
~GOING BEYOND 5 SENSES ~ Remember those two hard-to-spell senses I mentioned back when I started this series? Well, now it is time to talk about them. The vestibular sense provides feedback on our body’s balance, coordination, and movement in … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language Part 7 Movement
~Do You Hear What I Hear? ~ Crash. Bang. Screech. Nothing can beat adding sound words into one’s writing. Our sense of hearing develops long before we are born. At 18 weeks, an unborn infant can start to hear sounds. … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language Part 6 Sound
~ Take a Good Look ~ When we read, we create visual images in our heads. We picture the heroine’s dress. We see the house. We visualize the car speeding past. These visual images grow out of our own visual … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language Part 5: Vision
~ The Way It Feels ~ Close your eyes. Reach out and touch something nearby. Concentrate on how it feels to your fingertips. When we touch something a giant network of nerves are activated sending information to our brains. If … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language Part 4 Touch
~ The Gustatory Sense: On the Tip of Our Tongue ~ Stick out your tongue and take a taste. Yum! Our sense of taste is probably our most pleasurable sense. It is also one of the most complex. We have … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language Part 3 Taste
~ The Olfactory Sense: Using Our Nose ~ Smell is one of the most powerful of our senses. Smell forms and solidifies memories and evokes the emotions. A familiar odor can bring back an image or event from the past. Smells … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language Part 2 SMELL
– Weaving in the Seven Senses – As you can tell from the title I am still editing. I have gone over my current manuscript for all the big things. Now it is time for me to add those little details that … Continue reading Editing for Sensory Language
Editing Tribulations and Tricks For the last several months, I have been stuck in editing mode. It’s not that I dislike editing. I just like creating new stories better. Editing becomes a tribulation when all you do is edit from … Continue reading Marathon Editing
Or Why Hitching Creativity to the Clock is Doomed to Failure Yikes! Where did the time go? My last post was when – December? So much for keeping a writing journal. It was such a good idea – writing down … Continue reading Time Management versus Creativity in Writing
50,000 Words and Counting! I did it! For the third year in a row I managed to get down 50,000 words on my next novel, despite the holidays, a long-awaited visit from my sister who lives in Scotland, a book … Continue reading Word Trackers. A Good Thing or Not?
I love to read. In fact, I don’t just love it– I am compelled to read. I read everything. If there is a newspaper in the recycle bin, I read it. If there is a cereal box on the table, … Continue reading I love to read: Why reading during NaNoWri is a bad Idea
My first novel, written as a respite from working on my dissertation, took me five years to write. My second novel took seven years to write. My third novel took one month. What made the difference? Fast drafting. Fast drafting … Continue reading Fast Drafting My Way to The End or What I Learned from NaNoWri
Ready. Set. Go. Got my plot. Got my characters. Got my GMC outline. Got my alarm set. Everything appears ready for me to dive in and write my first 2000 words (Technically you need to write 1533 a day, but I aim for 2000 words a day – that way I get ahead a bit for the days I can’t write for some reason or other.) Problem is I also have a dentist appointment, a sister visiting from Scotland, the last broccoli and chard to harvest from the garden, and pizza night with the whole family. Not to mention constant … Continue reading NaNoWri starts Tomorrow and I Can’t Wait.
NaNoWri or National Novel Writing Month starts on Tuesday. This will be my third year participating. I don’t know why, but somehow tracking words and trying to attain the 50,000 word challenge in 30 days just gets my blood flowing and the creative juices oozing. So I am getting set for the race to the finish. NOTE: If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is here’s a brief overview. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. A small group of friends in California got together and challenged each other to write a book in a month and an idea was born. … Continue reading Why NaNoWri fires me up to write faster
I have always loved words. Words are amazing things. They can make us feel happy. They can cut us to the quick. Loving words as much as I do, it comes as no surprise that I am a reader and a writer. When I was a teenager I collected favorite words and phrases on index cards. I no longer have those cards nor the rusty metal file box I kept them in. In some ways it would be exciting to read them again and see what words would still have meaning for me. Then again, perhaps it is for the … Continue reading Zara’s Words for Readers & Writers
Dear Readers, I have been busy. In June, my first romantic suspense Beneath the Skin was published by Wild Rose Press. I have just signed the contract for Close to the Skin, Book 2 in the Skin Quartet series. I … Continue reading Forgive My Long Silence…
Where do you like to read? I’m a compulsive reader so I enjoy reading anywhere. I have been known to read while stirring the stew and in the few seconds it takes to microwave my tea. One of the reasons … Continue reading Favorite Places to Read
I’m having a Facebook Party for Beneath the Skin! Today is my big day. Beneath the Skin will be released to the world! In celebration, I am holding my first ever Facebook Party. In preparation, I have done a ton of research. … Continue reading Have a Successful Facebook Party
ZARA WEST'S JOURNAL 