Joan C. Curtis

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Trick or Tweet? What Has Twitter Gotten #Writers Into?

February 19, 2018 By Joan Curtis 2 Comments

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Have you been hoodwinked by Twitter? Do you spend hours every day, every week, tweeting or scheduling tweets? What’s the payoff? As a writer, I can lose myself for endless periods of time, tweeting or posting to Facebook. All those hours searching for good content, revising my tweets, scheduling the best time to post, reading […]

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Filed Under: Marketing for Writers, The Business of Writing, Writing Tips Tagged With: social media, tips, Tweet, Twitter, Writing

Mystery Writer on the Jury?

February 14, 2018 By Joan Curtis Leave a Comment

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This weekend I got that dreaded letter in my mailbox. A jury summons. Yep, it says I must report or else. The only excuses that fly are old-age, care for someone who can’t take care of themselves, military service and maybe death. All my excuses, “I’m on the last draft of my work-in-progress,” “I need […]

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Filed Under: Research, Thoughts on Creativity, Writing Tips Tagged With: Democracy, jury duty, people watch, research

Movies and Books? Do Films Accurately Depict the Books?

February 12, 2018 By Joan Curtis Leave a Comment

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There’s always been an argument about whether or not a film accurately portrays the original story form, that is, the novel or memoir. For me, I often think films cannot capture the essence of a full-length book. After all, the film has only two hours in which to tell the story. Novels are a slow […]

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Filed Under: Movies and books, Thoughts on Creativity Tagged With: books, Movies, Serena, The Post, Under the Tuscan Sun, Writing

Who Are Your Writing Companions?

February 7, 2018 By Joan Curtis 2 Comments

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Recently one of my writer colleagues told me he’d lost his trusty dog. That dog sat at his feet as he scribbled book after book. When things were good, the dog was there. When things were not so good, the dog was there. Now, with the dog gone, my friend is having a hard time […]

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Filed Under: Motivation to Write, My Thoughts, Writing Tips Tagged With: animals, companions, pets, Writing, writing tips

How Much Writing Is Too Much Writing

February 5, 2018 By Joan Curtis 2 Comments

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Artists know when they’ve added a bit too much paint to the canvas. They recognize when they’ve overdone it. An artist once told me he never completely finished a painting because he didn’t want to ruin it. By “ruin it” he meant, kill the tone, the feel, the essence of the work by over painting. […]

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Filed Under: Editing, Fiction Writing, For Readers, Writing Tips Tagged With: artists, descriptions, editing, over painting, overwriting, write tight

#MyBookReviews #TBR The Last Duel and My Italian Bulldozer

January 31, 2018 By Joan Curtis Leave a Comment

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You may have missed my blog posts? #reading #writing Click To Tweet Maybe you didn’t notice but I’ve been offline for a little while. What have I been doing? Reading and writing. I am working on revisions on my work-in-progress and I’ve been reading. Recently I finished two very different books but both worth a […]

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Filed Under: For Readers, Joan's Must Reads, Reviews Tagged With: #MustReads, #mybookreviews, Alesander McCall Smith, Eric Jager, My Italian Bulldozer, The Last Duel

Creating Characters that Walk off the Page #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop

January 16, 2018 By Joan Curtis 17 Comments

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Recently I hosted a little gathering at our local library and talked about my books and fiction writing. One of the questions I was asked during the workshop was how do I make my characters seem so real? What are the secrets to creating characters that seem to walk off the page?  All of us […]

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Filed Under: Author Toolbox Blog Hop, Characters, My Thoughts, Thoughts on Creativity, Writing Tips Tagged With: #authortoolboxbloghop, character motivations, characterization, creativity, imagination, Johari Window, psychologists, writing tips

#MyBookReview Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

January 15, 2018 By Joan Curtis 1 Comment

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I am often skeptical of books that have thousands of reviews and still have over four stars. So, this book languished on my e-reader for months. I finally read the sample, and I was hooked. The story is riveting and quite disturbing #mybookreview @LisaWingate Click To Tweet Taking her cue from history, Lisa Wingate tells […]

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Filed Under: For Readers, Joan's Must Reads, Reviews Tagged With: #mybookreview, Before We Were Yours, historical novel, Lisa Wingate, Must read

How Do You Judge A Book? My #Tips

January 12, 2018 By Joan Curtis 2 Comments

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Recently I finished reading an historical novel I enjoyed very much. I found it interesting and was anxious to sit down and read. Some of the characters were predictable; others not so much. Some of the story predictable; other parts not so much. The bottom line was it kept me reading and entertained the entire […]

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Filed Under: Fiction Writing, For Readers, My Thoughts Tagged With: characterization, dialogue, Judge books, point of view, repetition

Survey to Determine What Blog Content You Wanna Read

January 10, 2018 By Joan Curtis 3 Comments

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This new year let’s start with ideas for blog content, that you, the readers, want to read Click To Tweet I know many people read blogs and often never comment. That makes it hard for bloggers to know what people might enjoy reading. What kinds of blogs do you read and what content do you […]

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Filed Under: Blogging, For Readers, Survey Tagged With: Blogging, content, fiction, marketing, nonfiction, scams, survey, Writing

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Recent Posts

  • Writing out of a Writer’s Slump #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop June 19, 2018
  • How to Release Your Subconscious. #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop April 18, 2018
  • All Writers Experience Rejection. Even Charlotte Bronte April 11, 2018
  • Tips for Making Your Books More Pleasurable to Your Readers #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop March 20, 2018
  • Do Academic Writers Make Good Novelists? March 14, 2018

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