Skip to content
Cheryl Burman
Author
  • About the author
  • Cheryl Burman’s Books
  • Newsletter
  • Blog posts for readers & writers
    • Bits of research
    • Book reviews
    • Writing prompts
    • Writing tips
  • Guardians of the Forest
    • Legend of The Winged Lion
  • Historical Fiction
  • Bits of writing
    • Look and listen!
  • Author guest spots
    • K.L. Small
    • Judy Ferrell
    • Wendy Leighton-Porter
    • A Curiosity of Crime
    • Crispina Kemp
    • Marian L Thorpe
    • Jay Veloso Batista
    • LK Wilde
    • RS Jonesee
    • Paula Peckham
    • Patricia Taylor Wells
    • J.C. (Joanne) Paulson
    • Nina Romano
    • Flora Klickmann
    • Jean Roberts
    • Rue Sparks
    • Kathleen Cranidge
    • Dreena Collins
    • C. D’Angelo
    • D.B. Carter
    • Leia Talon
    • Karen Honnor
    • Emma Lombard
    • Lily Lawson, poet
  • Reviews of what I’m reading
  • Sammy’s Walks

Category: Writing tips

Three ways to differentiate your characters

March 10, 2023 cheryl Leave a comment

A couple of months ago I wrote about multiple POVs, were they a good idea or not. At the time…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: character emotions, character voice, characters, writing characters

The dreaded ‘lay’ vs ‘lie’

January 13, 2023 cheryl

I use a piece of software to produce images for this site, social media, my newsletter and other things. I…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: editing, lay vs lie, writing, writingtips

Multiple POVs – good idea or not?

November 9, 2022 cheryl 2 Comments

What are POVs? Point of view (POV) characters are those through whose eyes the story of our novel is told.…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: self publishing, Writing tips Filed under: characters, editing, multiple POVs, novel draft, points of view

Six plot devices explained

October 7, 2022 cheryl
sign warning of cliff edge

I admit I only had a hazy knowledge of what a plot device is when I decided to write this…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: Checkov's gun, flashback, foreshadowing, narrative technique, plot devices, plot twists, red herrings

Plotter or Pantser?

September 9, 2022 cheryl
cartoon sharacters

Different writers approach their new work-in-progress in (many) different ways. Approaches tend, however, to fall along a spectrum. At one…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: self publishing, Writing tips Filed under: novel outlining, novel writing approaches, pantsers, plotters, writing

Is your novel too short?

June 6, 2022 cheryl
banner

I asked some members of the #writingcommunity what they’d like me to research for this month’s Writer’s Corner, and this…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: backstory, characters, conflict in novels, dialogue, editing, novel beginnings, novel draft, novel endings, plot structure, secondary characters

Resist the urge to explain: four ‘explanations’

May 4, 2022 cheryl

‘Resist the urge to explain’ is a mantra drummed into us writers. Okay, another rule – but what does it…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: backstory, character emotions, characterisation in novels, editing, imformation dumps in writing, show not tell, story endings

Characters readers love to spend time with

April 2, 2022 cheryl
holding hands

This post first appeared in April 2022 newsletter writer’s corner and updated September 22. For ongoing writing tips, sign up…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: authors, character depth, character emotions, editing, writing characters

Make verbs work harder to strengthen your writing

March 5, 2022 cheryl 2 Comments

How can we make verbs work harder for us? Writers are often told: ‘get rid of was’, and ‘ban -ing…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Writing tips Filed under: active voice, adverbs, passive voice, past tense, verbs, words ending in -ly

Six Do’s and Four Don’ts in writing book blurbs

February 10, 2022 cheryl
open book

Writing book blurbs is hard. Ask any author pitching to agents on the traditional publishing route, and 99% will tell…

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Marketing, self publishing, Writing tips Filed under: back cover blurbs, book blurbs, book description

Post navigation

Page 1 of 5
1 2 … 5 Next →

  • About the author
  • Cheryl Burman’s Books
  • Newsletter
  • Blog posts for readers & writers
  • Guardians of the Forest
  • Historical Fiction
  • Bits of writing
  • Author guest spots
  • Reviews of what I’m reading
  • Sammy’s Walks
Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2023 Cheryl Burman — Lyrical WordPress theme by GoDaddy