Melissa Charles author

books

  • How To Write A Novel – Inspiration

    So, back in this post, I said I’d boiled down my writing process into three points when drafting a new novel: inspiration, outline, and characters. For me, everything starts with an idea. This can be something from a headline, a day dream, a bit of conversation overheard while waiting in line at the grocery store.…

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  • How To Write A Novel

    Being an author can be an awkward life. There’s so much work that happens long before you can point to an actual book for sale that I’ve considered claiming a career in something more straightforward, like being an international spy or llama psychologist. How do you explain the journey of writing a novel? “Well, I…

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  • Author Challenge: How To Research Crimes Without Getting Arrested

    Maybe it’s my anxiety squirrels having a moment, but is there a good way to call up, say, the local police or fire department to ask questions about how to plot a crime? It can be really hard to find accurate information sometimes without sending up some concerning flags. Telling them, “I swear, I’m an…

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  • From A Pantser To A Plotter?

    The term ‘pantser’ is taken from the expression, ‘flying by the seat of your pants.’ Personally, I think of it more as the Ms. Frizzle approach. “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”… while flying by the seat of your pants. I usually have the last scene in mind, and maybe a snapshot in my head…

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  • Idioms, Not Idiots

    In our family, The Husband and I take turns reading bedtime stories to the Littles, who aren’t as little as they used to be, but are still willing to be read to. Right now, they like old Garfield comics. Since I’ve already read ALL the Captain Underpants books and ALL the spinoffs multiple times, it’s…

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  • Some Rules are NEVER to be Broken! (Part One)

    Okay. I know as authors we’re creative. We like to bend the rules upon occasion, be it blending genres, creating different rules of magic, that kind of thing. We’re allowed to make up whatever rules we want in our own sandbox, as long as they’re consistent and make sense. Like, you can’t have your vampire…

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  • How I Got My Agent

    One of the most popular questions agented authors get is HOW. How did you do it? There are a lot of things I could say, to make it sound like some dark, mysterious event. Probably involving some magic, candles, chanting, possibly a deal made with a member of Faerie whose name cannot be mentioned, or…

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