These days hashtags are ubiquitous on social media platforms. Most social media now use hashtags (sometimes simply referred to as tags), and Facebook is among them. Hashtags can help Facebook users who aren’t your friends or haven’t yet liked your book page to discover you. Whenever a Facebook user types in a hashtag that you’veContinue reading “Use Hashtags to Sell Your Book on Facebook”
Author Archives: Rob Bignell
Mainstream vs. Self-Publishing
“After being Turned Down by numerous Publishers, he had decided to write for Posterity.” – George Ade (U.S. dramatist & humorist, 1866 – 1944), “Fables in Slang,” 1899 For the past three decades, publishing houses increasingly have printed fewer books and cutting back on the number of titles they print. In addition, there already are aContinue reading “Mainstream vs. Self-Publishing”
5 Sci Fi Writing Prompts – Novums
Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning ofContinue reading “5 Sci Fi Writing Prompts – Novums”
Liven Up Your Writing: Replace Overused Verbs
Even when using active verbs, sentences still may sound flat. More than likely, those active verbs are also overused. An overused verb is one that’s commonplace and dull. Among the many active verbs that tend to be overused in our daily language and writing are sat, looked for, felt, enjoy, gave, and became. Using such commonplaceContinue reading “Liven Up Your Writing: Replace Overused Verbs”
Give your Writing Class with Appropriate Diction
A sign of true craftsmanship for a writer is when he selects the right words and arranges them in an evocative way. After all, the most interesting character facing a significant moral decision in a fast-paced plot and exotic setting will sound flat if the words used are wrong. The vocabulary choices and ways they areContinue reading “Give your Writing Class with Appropriate Diction”
5 Great Quotations about “Good Writing”
“Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.” – Delmore Schwartz “A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.” – Raymond Chandler “Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn themContinue reading “5 Great Quotations about “Good Writing””
Writing Success: Is it Talent or Hard Work?
You’ve written story after story, but none of them ever seem to measure up to your favorite authors’ pieces. Meanwhile, the few of your stories that you thought were actually decent won’t sell. You’re starting to wonder if you have the natural-born talent to be a writer. Before you start getting hard on yourself, we shouldContinue reading “Writing Success: Is it Talent or Hard Work?”
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5 Great Quotations about Books
“Books have to be heavy because the whole world’s inside them.” – Cornelia Funke “I love the smell of book ink in the morning.” – Umberto Eco “Nothing is more human than a book.” – Marilynne Robinson “A life without books is a thirsty life, and one without poetry is…like a life without pictures.” – StephenContinue reading “5 Great Quotations about Books”
Through the Act of Writing, a Writer Learns More about Himself than He Could Ever Imagine
For many writers, the greatest yield from their writing is not a royalties check or the adulation of fans at a book reading. Instead, it’s self-discovery. To that end, many writers keep journals. By writing each or every few days about what occurred to them or their thoughts about some past event, they use the emptyContinue reading “Through the Act of Writing, a Writer Learns More about Himself than He Could Ever Imagine”