Category Archives: Kelly Gunzenhauser

Writing Dystopian Fiction: Rollerball Is The Hunger Games

There has been plenty of commentary about how The Hunger Games, the latest teen-focused dystopian book and film craze, isn’t necessarily a new idea, just a very good version of an old idea, and Rollerball is pretty solid proof. Continue reading

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7 Dos and Don’ts for Submitting Your Writing

Some pointers for writers to keep in mind for their manuscript submissions. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Meet Mary Sue

Don’t be afraid to make your characters unattractive, or nasty at times, or less than perfect, or very different from you. What you are after is not perfection. What you are after is realism, complexity, motivation, believability. Continue reading

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The Writer’s Life: 6 Things You Should Know

If you want to start a career as a writer—meaning, if you want writing to be your main or only source of income—then here are some things you should know. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Carrots and Sticks

When you really start writing for a living, as I do for at least part of the time, something happens. I hate to crush your dreams, but at some point it really does turn into work. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Make Your Characters Fight

If you are having trouble nailing down the finer aspects of a character, a good way to get to know her better is to make her have a fight with someone else. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Bad Endings

“There’s no crying in baseball!” “I loved you in The Wizard of Oz!” “Alice, you’re killing me!”* Yep, A League of Their Own is a great baseball movie. Nope, I am not through with sports writing yet. We aren’t writing … Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Writing about Sports

Why are sports so popular in novels? For one thing, they have natural drama. There is inherent excitement, a winner and a loser, a struggle, and a dramatic outcome. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Are All Writers Neurotic?

Am I just a touch neurotic? Are all writers? Must they be, in order to be good at what they do—you know, that tortured artist thing? Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: One of Those Days…

Normally, I love writing these blogs, but today I ask for your patience. I have had a bad day. I have a headache (I get a lot of migraines), had a rotten day at the office (mostly because I screwed up some things that I shouldn’t have and I am notoriously hard on myself), and I’m crabby. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Random Writing Prompts

Sometimes, it can be refreshing to step outside of our writing constraints and put ourselves into new ones that have nothing to do with what we’re working on at the time. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Blog Away!

You don’t have to have an actual blog to try this writing exercise. Write it on a napkin if need be. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Unputdownability

If you are writing a novel, then “unputdownability” is what you should strive for in your writing if you want to snag a publisher, editor, or agent. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Dialect for Your Dialogue

Trot down memory lane and think about how you talked during your childhood. This works especially well when you recall times your family members were shouting at each other, or when generations got together for special occasions. What weird phrases did you catch? Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Do I Offend?

Do you have something that you are reluctant to finish, publish, or even to explore in your writing because you are afraid of what other people might think about it? Continue reading

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How to Translate Your Passion into Print: An Interview with the Co-Author of “Duke Sucks”

An interview (plus a writing exercise) with Andy Bagwell, co-author of Duke Sucks: A Completely Evenhanded, Unbiased Investigation into the Most Evil Team on Planet Earth. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Taking Inventory

Now is the perfect time of year to take inventory of your writing archives, and accept that you aren’t going to use every writing idea you generate. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Some Writing Resolutions

What are your writing goals? Make them attainable, and make them goals you don’t have to rely on others to hit. Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: Season’s Greetings from Snark-o the Christmas Elf

We don’t write letters much anymore. When was the last time you thought about writing a letter to someone? And, when was the last time you used letter writing as a device in your own writing? Continue reading

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Friday Writing Exercise: The Christmas Song

Writers reference songs in their writing all the time. Why not try your hand at some holiday songwriting and see how original you can be? Continue reading

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