Friday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

TONE: IS YOUR ROMANCE SENSUAL OR INTELLECTUAL?

By: Darcy Pattison

I am currently reading Eleanor and Park, a YA romance; one of the interesting things about this story is the author’s choice to create a sensual tone. It’s not sexy or intellectual. The choice of tone is interesting because often a romance can devolve into physical stuff of sex.

Instead, Rowell walks a fine line between the two extremes. It’s sensual because there are physical details. For example, Eleanor notices Park’s hands:

Park’s hands were perfectly still in his lap. And perfectly perfect. Honey colored with clean, pink fingernails. Everything about him was strong and slender. Every time he moved, he had a reason.

Or Park, describing holding Eleanor’s hand:

Holding Eleanor’s hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.

Creating the Right Tone

The question is, of course, what tone do I want for my story?

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Read the full article HERE! 

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Tone: Is your Romance Sensual or Intellectual? http://ow.ly/GZteT
2. KATE AVERY ELLISON: How To Be A Novelist Part 1 http://ow.ly/GZtYG
3. How to make Wattpad work for you as an author | The Indie Writer's Guide http://ow.ly/GZu8A
4. Mythcreants » Establishing Important Characters http://ow.ly/GZugf
5. Readability: So Very Important | chrismcmullen http://ow.ly/GZuIX
6. Karen Woodward: Reading Critically: Try-Fail Cycles (Part 3 of 3) http://ow.ly/GZuNt
7. Anne R. Allen's Blog: What Did You Care About Most in 2014? Our Top Writing Stories. http://ow.ly/GZyiE
8. Self-Editing Redux: Spot Checking - Writeonsisters.com http://ow.ly/GZyAg
9. The eBook Author's Corner: Developing an Author Website – A Marketing and Communication Checklist Study http://ow.ly/GZySX
10. Social Media Optimization: The Best Times To Share Content On #Facebook #Twitter #Pinterest & #Instagram http://ow.ly/GZzfA
11. You Just Launched a Book. Now What? | Your Writer Platform http://ow.ly/GZzVu
12. One Year: No Regrets | Brenna Aubrey http://ow.ly/H0m6y
13. Content Marketing Distribution: Pull vs Push (Chart) - Heidi Cohen http://ow.ly/GZDKd
14. The Write Type - Multi-Author Musings http://ow.ly/H0vHe
15. Author discontent grows as Kindle Unlimited enters its fifth month ⋆ The Digital Reader http://ow.ly/H0wP5
16. Origin Of The Hashtag In #SocialMedia - #Infographic http://ow.ly/H0wZH
17. Using Your Personality Type to Make You a Better Writer - Marcy Kennedy http://ow.ly/H0xaJ
18. Helping Writers Become Authors - Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world. http://ow.ly/H0xGn
19. Writer Unboxed » Six Things Every Writer Needs to Succeed (Psst: MFA is not on this list.) http://ow.ly/H0yrj
20. Using Animated GIFs for Your Blog and Marketing http://ow.ly/H0zmi
21. How The Publishing Process Is Like Dating | C H Griffin http://ow.ly/H0zTA
22. The 5 Ingredients of a Great Marketing Story [Free Poster] | The Copybot http://ow.ly/H0AVa

P.S. I am knee deep in World War II research and old movie watching for THE EMERALD BROOCH. How many of these TOP WORLD WAR II movies have you seen? Half of them are on my list. My favorite is IN HARM’S WAY. 

And my library continues to grow! Have you read any good World War II stories lately? Especially romances. Let me know.

I'm also researching PTSD. I found a U.S. Army training video about how to handle "combat exhaustion." Check out the last ten minutes.

Moving from the American Civil War to World War II is a big transition. Here's an interesting statistic: 750,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War and 405,399 were killed in World War II. Looks like we figured out something in eighty years. 

Yesterday I spent the afternoon studying London Google maps. I've been to England and recognized many of the locations that were bombed during the war, but visualizing the destruction was difficult. I can't imagine living through 24/7 bombing. What brave people!

For those of you who write historicals, how do you handle writing and researching? Do you research as you go? Spend a few weeks reading as much as you can so you're familiar with the time period before you start, or do you write your story and make notes to research different topics during your second draft. 

I research as I go, and I think that makes the process longer. I easily get distracted and chase leads that I probably won't use. I can spend four hours reading and add one sentence to my story. I definitely need to develop a new process. Hmm. Maybe I'll start reading at night and using the word "placeholder" when I get to a point in my story that needs research. If you don't get words on a page, you'll never have anything to edit.  

Well, back to work. I have some words to write today! 

 Happy writing and running, Kathy