Jennifer Lane Books Blog

Happy May to all writers! Pop over to Alex Cavanaugh's  blog  to join us for the Insecure Writers Support Group. Today's co-hosts:   Nancy Gideon,   Tamara Narayan,  Liesbet @  Roaming About ,   Michelle Wallace,  and  Feather Stone! How's your writing? I'm about 40% done with my romantic suspense WIP, Twin Sacrifice . Thank you to my awesome critique partner,  Nicki Elson , for her tremendous help. I love this month's IWSG question: What's the weirdest/coolest thing you've researched for a story? So many weird/cool topics to choose from! I know quite a few writers like me hope our internet search histories don't alert the authorities to possible subversive behavior. Here are my highlights: * Building bomb triggers * Layout of rooms in the White House * Effects of Rohypnol (Roofies) on the body * How to get a gun through airport security And my most fun research? Taking a Chicago architectural cruise. I lo...

Holla, writers! Good to see you for the Insecure Writers Support Group started by Alex J Cavanaugh. Join us HERE to share insecurities, worries, tips, and celebrations. Let's talk research . How do you research unfamiliar topics to increase the authenticity of your writing? My WIP Spiked (Blocked #3) has two main characters: * Mateo is a music performance major with diabetes * Jessica is an art major on the varsity swim team I have part lungs, part gills after swimming all my life, so I'm good with that aspect of the story. But I know very little about the intricacies of music , art , and diabetes . Thank goodness for Professor Google. For this story, I've consulted the inter webs for ideas about college curriculums, acoustic guitars, and the Secret Service. Of course there's a lot of crap on the internet, but I try to verify information with two or three sites. Human capital is awesome for research, too. Lovely reader Nelly Guajardo guides me...

Feeling insecure? Need support? Join us for the Insecure Writers Support Group, created by Alex Cavanaugh   and co-hosted by   Julie Flanders,   Murees Dupé,   Dolorah at Book Lover,   Christine Rains,  and  Heather Gardner!   If you're like me, sometimes the negative voices get you down. Here's a helpful post  for writing: Five Negative Voices and How to Shush Them. A more positive voice: I love writing--I really do! Let me specify, though, that I love FICTION writing. The past two weeks I've slaved over writing a psychology book chapter for a textbook, and it was hell . No wonder I gravitate more toward therapy than research. One small consolation is that writing five fiction novels has improved my academic writing, too. I'm almost done with my sixth book ACED (Blocked #2), yahoo!  76000 / 80000 words. 95% done with Aced! I'm hoping for a November or December release, depending on the editing timeli...

Today I welcome Lisa Daniels to the blog. Her guest post shares tips for writing characters who are addicted to drugs. What fun! Take it away, Lisa: Writing Addicted Characters One of the first pieces of advice you hear when starting to craft stories is 'write what you know'. The obvious way to interpret this is to focus on things you're already familiar with such as your local neighborhood, jobs you've held and people you've known. There is nothing wrong with this approach and it can lead to some inspired writing. However, if you want to include elements in your story that seem a million miles from anything you've ever experienced, such as a character who is an addict, you will need to adopt a broader interpretation of that advice in order to achieve authenticity. Effective research When it comes to writing fiction, research can mean a number of things. It can be from a textbook in a college library, a session typing things into an internet search engine...