Category Archives: Writing Advice

Querying agents. Stiff upper lip and all that…

Posted on April 16, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

Blog post from the lovely Cassandra about the trials and tribulations of Query letter writing. Querying agents. Stiff upper lip and all that….

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Grammar Gripes 4- “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

Posted on March 23, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” -Stephen King Excerpts from The Stand, by Stephen King: “Huh!” Harold said, squeaked actually. “Go away!” he yelled tearfully. He looked up at her finally, his face tear streaked and still wanting … Continue reading →

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Grammar Gripes 3- Ermahgerd! Passive Voice is teh Evil!

Posted on March 21, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

Passive voice is bad, m’kay? Writers see various forms of that sentence everywhere they look. Passive voice is non-dynamic, boring, and wordy. No one should use it, ever. Even my Word program is now tweaked so that it will tell … Continue reading →

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Help! I need a title!

Posted on March 9, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

Below is an excerpt from a short story I’ve written based on my novel, Ghost in the Park. It’s a supernatural thriller, in which our hero hears dead people. In novel length fic, I don’t fuss to much about the … Continue reading →

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The things a narrator doesn’t need to say

Posted on February 24, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

The things a narrator doesn't need to say. A very good bit of writing advice from the lovely Victoria Grefer.

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Encouraging Critique- Don’t be a Precious Princess

Posted on February 16, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

The wonderful thing about the internet is that anyone can write something and have it posted for all the world to see. This is also the horrible thing about the internet. People do. People write any old thing. And then … Continue reading →

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Is it actually helpful to “fix” someone’s bad query letter?

Posted on February 3, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

Is it actually helpful to “fix” someone’s bad query letter? I was at my favorite writing forum, Absolute Write’s Water Cooler, looking at some query letters that had been posted in a section where author’s are looking for critique. There … Continue reading →

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The Hook- Avoiding Clichés

Posted on February 1, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

In my last post, I talked about ways you can write a book so that it has the best chance of being published. About what makes a book sellable to an agent. Today, we talk about the hook. The hook, … Continue reading →

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Before you write the book-

Posted on January 31, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

I’ve written a three part series about cover letters in this blog, and it struck me today that what many might find useful is some advice about writing a book that you want to get published. About what you should … Continue reading →

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Capitalization

Posted on January 30, 2013 by JulianneQJohnson

Capital Letters. The bane of my existence. Certainly, the basic rules of when to capitalize a word are simple enough. The first word in a sentence. Proper nouns, such as people’s names, cities, states, and countries. The names of a … Continue reading →

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