This is the full post! Sorry about the earlier post, I accidentally hit Publish, instead of Save Draft, so email and RSS subscribers, ignore the first one (please?)

Yesterday on Mina Khan’s blog, I talked about the strategies I use to cope with the vicissitudes of the writing life. I thought I’d expand a little on one of my strategies: envisioning my setbacks as brick walls to climb over. In my guest post, I gave this advice for setbacks:

When I come across a setback (rejections), I picture that I’ve just hit a solid wall along with many others on the same journey. Then I picture myself scaling it and getting to the other side so I can keep going. It also helps to know that many don’t do this and they’re milling around at that wall too afraid to climb over, etc, BUT I also make sure when…

Writers In The Storm welcomes back literary attorney, Susan Spann, with her next installment of her  author’s business plan series.

By Susan Spann

Today we take the discussion of author business plans “on the clock” with section five of the author business plan – the Development Timeline.

This Development Timeline section actually contains a group of schedules – one for each phase of the work the business plan covers. Timelines prove most effective when authors use calendars and establish concrete dates, so even if your initial planning is done in general blocks of time, the finished Development Timelines should incorporate actual calendar dates. Remember: the key to timelines is flexibility: use concrete dates, but don’t be afraid to revise them as you go.

An author’s “Development Timeline” should have (at least) three timelines:

1.  The Writing and Editing Timeline tracks the author’s writing schedule. This timeline starts when…

By Laura Drake

It seems I’m always confessing in my blogs. I’m not sure I want to know what that says about me, but I know wherever my mother is, she’s proud that she had some influence. But that is, as they say, ‘a different meeting.’

I suck at tracking time in my novels. You know — how much time passes between scenes, and the time span from the beginning to the end.  A year? A decade?

I just finished a huge revision for my ‘biker-chick’ book, Her Road Home, due out in August. I got busted by my editor. I kind of hoped she wouldn’t notice. She did.  Here are a few actual editorial comments:

• How much time has passed since the last scene?
• What month is it?
• I’m a little unsure of how much later this scene takes place . . .

Good questions. My answer? “Damned…

Writers In The Storm is pleased to welcome Tara Lain back (you can see her previous post Attack of the Blog here). Pour yourself a cold drink (you’ll need it) and get ready to learn a thing or two about spicing up those love scenes.

Hi everyone–

I’m delighted to be back at Writers in the Storm. The ladies asked me if I would write about building heat in a love scene. Why would they choose this topic for me?  Aha! Because I’m a writer of erotic romance! Good erotic romances are certainly famous for their love scenes. Want to know why? That’s my topic.

The main way that an erotic romance differs from a traditional romance is — the erotic romance is NOT so much about sex.

Not what you expected? Think about it. In most traditional romances, one of the main plot points is “will they…