Allison Maruska has been a blogger since March, 2012 and a started writing novels a year later. She is the author of The Fourth Descendant, an Amazon best-selling historical mystery. She’s a mom, a teacher, an avid coffee and wine…
Blog Archives
Interview with Allison Maruska
Tagged with: Allison Marushka, blog, Cathleen Townsend, interview, revision, The Fourth Descendant
Posted in Author Interviews
Posted in Author Interviews
The Latest, Greatest, Shiny Idea
Mostly, writers love plot bunnies. They show up, wriggling their metaphoric noses and we’re delighted. We can’t sleep until we get started. This is going to be the best story idea yet. And then at some point, six or twelve…
Kill Your Darlings
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King, On Writing. This particular quote seems to have passed into common usage. It’s a phrase often heard when a writer…
Tagged with: beta readers, Cathleen Townsend, critique, developing plot and characters, feedback, kill your darlings
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Interview with Meradeth Houston
Meradeth’s never been a big fan of talking about herself, but if you really want to know, here are some random tidbits about her: She’s a Northern California girl, now braving the cold winters in Montana. When she’s not writing,…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, characters, Meradeth Houston, setting, Travelers, upcoming works, world-building
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Synonyms for Look and Walk
Is there an easier word to overuse than look? If you’re not careful, it’ll take over your manuscript. A judicious use of synonyms can help. Notice the qualifier. If your characters are using a synonym for look every other paragraph,…
A Different Kind of Story Prompt
Today’s post will be short because I found out about this brilliant thing yesterday. There’s not a ton to say, but it’s really worth a post on its own. I discovered it on Twitter, and it seriously made all the…
Facing Fear
In some ways, it seems silly to write about this topic in connection with being a writer. What am I afraid of anyway? It’s not as though I’m going into battle. Nobody’s going to wave a sword or a gun…
Writing What You Know
This is common advice, along with write from your heart. But sometimes, when things are said in sound bites, it’s easy to become confused. After all, if we only write what we directly know, we could never have a story set…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, character, research, setting, writing what you know
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Point-of-View–Which One Should I Use?
Authors have many options when it comes to choosing the character lens through which readers will view their stories. Each one has its own strengths and pitfalls. First person–this happens to by my go-to POV, the one that I feel…
Tagged with: Cathleen Townsend, first person, omnicient, second person, third-person limited
Posted in Writing
Posted in Writing
Criticism: Friend or Foe?
Criticism can be either helpful or destructive, depending on the state of mind of the critiquer and the writer receiving it. Writing takes enormous amounts of both self-confidence and humility. You have to think your words are worthwhile, or you’ll…
Cathleen Townsend 