Articles and Tips on Writing Fiction
5 Tips to Using Details: Use Details to Bring Your Story to Life
The right details can make your characters and settings seem more real, more alive, even more interesting. But loading your story down with detail can put your reader to sleep. more...
Make Your Writing Come Alive: Write About What Moves You
There's a common saying among writers—write about what you know. I think that's generally good advice. I'd like to add: write about what moves you, what you care about, what provokes strong emotion in you. more...
Fiction Critiquing: What To Ask Your First Reader To Look For
You want your manuscript to be the best it can be. You want it to move the people who read it, so they'll read another of your books–and tell others how good your book is. But we can't always see our writing clearly enough to make it the best it can be; we can be too close to it. That's where a first reader comes in. more...
Top Ten Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Writing
1. Write about what you care about. Write about what moves you, what touches you in some way. The more you care about something, the more passion there will be in your writing. more...
Do You Have to Write Every Day to Be a Real Writer?
Do you have to write every day to be a real or serious writer? The short answer is no. more...
Writing Technique Is Vital To Good Writing
Learning how fiction works--learning writing technique--is, in my opinion, vital to writing really great fiction. Writers, just like any other artist (such as musicians or painters), need tools they can wield. more...
You've Finished Your Manuscript. Should You Rush To Send It Out?
You've worked hard on your manuscript. You've finally finished it. But is it ready to send out?As writers, it's often hard to get a clear perspective on our work. more...
Books Can Help You Heal
Books of fiction are powerful things. They can move us, make us cry, laugh, and feel. They can help us know we are not alone. more...
Inspiring, Thought-Provoking Quotes About Writing
The rule of the writer is not to say what we can all say but what we are unable to say.
- Anais Nin. more...
Recommended Books on Writing Technique: The Best of the Best
Good books on how to write fiction can be invaluable. They can help you discover new ways to make your writing more effective and powerful. more...
my books and stories:
Dragon Speaker: The Last Dragon, my hi-lo (high interest, low vocabulary) fantasy comes out in Sept 2009 from HIP Books, with my name as C. A. Rainfield.
Brom has telepathy with birds, but he's put down because of his weak leg. Yet he is the only one who can save the last dragon from an evil wizard and lord.
SCARS, my realistic fiction teen book, comes out in 2010.
15-year-old Kendra was sexually abused as a kid. She doesn't remember who her abuser is, and she doesn't want to. When her memories get too painful, Kendra cuts herself to escape. But then her abuser, through notes, threatens to hurt her if she names him. Kendra must remember who abused her before it's too late.
My paranormal-suspense story The Healer is published in an anthology by Red Deer Press (The Horrors Terrifying Tales: Book Two).
The Horrors Terrifying Tales: Book Two
Read an excerpt from The Healer.
Click here.
Peter Carver (ed),Toronto: Red Deer Press, 2006.
ISBN 0889953384.
Paperback.
Amazon.ca
and many local independent bookstores and libraries.
My edgy realistic short story 'Comfort Food' is published in an anthology by Graveside Tales (Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths
Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths
by Colleen Morris and Joel A. Sutherland (Ed), Graveside Tales, 2007.
ISBN-13: 978-0980133806
Paperback.
www.CherylRainfield.com