Writer’s Block – Fact or Myth?

October 29, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 14 Comments

I realize the existence of writer’s block is controversial. Writers who’ve never experienced the phenomenon believe it’s as much a myth as the Loch ness monster or Bigfoot. Well, I’m here to tell you, it’s real – at least for this old Southern gal.

Thank God, Rachel Harclerode agrees and in her guest post at Live, Write, Thrive, offers us, 9 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block.

I’ve tried a few of her suggestions, but I think numbers 3, 5, 6, and 9 speak to me. To find out more, hop on over to C.S. Lakin’s Live, Write, Thrive and check out all nine of Rachel’s suggestions.

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Am I alone or do you suffer the occasional brain fart of writer’s block? What suggestions do you have? Share them, please.

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Stories for Your Reading Pleasure

October 25, 2016October 29, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

It’s the perfect time of the years, with the nights turning cooler and the leaves falling, to curl up by the fire with a good story. So, from fellow writers across the web, here are a few of my favorites.

First up, the winner of WOW’s 2016 Spring Flash Fiction Contest, Mixed Colors by K. Alan Leitch and 2016 Winter Flash Fiction Contest, runner-up, Carole Garrison’s –The Wait.

SmokeLong Quarterly, gives us – My Husband is Made of Ash by Jennifer Todhunter and My Friend Diane by Emily Flouton.

And, from Fiction Southeast, The Kidnapper’s Journal by Shoshauna Shy.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did. Pass them on and let the authors know what you thought.

Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Best Laid Plans

October 14, 2016October 22, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 12 Comments

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups! The Prompt: ….why does the world fight back when….

Sun streaked across Nicole’s face, and her eyes popped open like a marionette’s. The new suit and heels, she couldn’t afford, mocked her from across the room. Shit! Her first interview in more than a year and she’d overslept.

Shit, Shit, shit! Why does the world fight back when you’re doing your damnedest? She twisted her long locks into a chignon, swiped mascara across thick lashes, threw on the suit, grabbed her purse, and ran for the door.

Three minutes to spare! Nicole sprang from the cab, let out a yelp, and stared in disbelief as her bare feet sank into the snow. Well, hell’s bells.

Words: 106

Pace and story structure: a blueprint for keeping the reader gripped

October 12, 2016October 21, 2016 / Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

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Don’t you love it when you find a book, and you can’t put it down? The story is so captivating you can’t turn the pages fast enough. Likewise, there are those books that drag. It isn’t necessarily boring – just slow; it seems it takes forever for anything to happen or change the directory of the story – it’s called pacing.

Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel gives one of the most concise explanations on pacing I’ve read to date. Check it out and thanks, Roz!

Nail Your Novel

seattle_bway_mambo_01 I’ve had an interesting question from Josephine of the blog Muscat Tales:

Can you talk about pace? How to speed up/slow down the action/plot – and when? Is there a general blueprint for this or does the story type dictate the peaks and troughs of emotion, action and change?

There’s much to chew on here. And I think I can provide a few blueprints.

In order to answer, I’ll reorder the questions.

First, a definition. What’s pace? Put simply, it’s the speed at which the story seems to proceed in the reader’s mind. It’s the sense of whether enough is happening.
When to speed up or slow down?

This comes down to emphasis. You don’t want the pace of the story to flag. But equally, you don’t want to rip through the events at speed. Sometimes you want to take a scene slowly so the reader savours the full…

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