Betsy the Gremlin

Writing about writing to avoid writing her writing.

  • The Voice and Writing Spectacular – Your Fascinating Hollywood Signature

    Let’s talk voice. If you have been writing for any amount of time, and doing any amount of research the chances are high that you’ve come across the term, ‘voice’ or ‘voices’. There are lots of things about having a unique voice in the industry – the abstract ‘voice’ – and making sure your voice Read more

  • Today Vegetables, Tomorrow the World!

    Last week was another experiment in my *~*~*~influencing adventures~*~*~*. It still feels very silly, but dressing up my new Bunnicula shirt from Out of Print was kind of fun. It’s odd. I’m still having some issues accepting my recent weight gain; part of me is miserable about it and part of me is coming to Read more

  • Cozy and Cozier – the Best Autumn Writing Essentials!

    This is my favorite time of year; the transition from summer to fall. It’s not quite autumn and the summer heat is fading and the anticipation of Halloween and the holidays is just around the corner. The desire to get cozy is creeping up, and like a bear getting ready for winter I’m feeling the Read more

  • The Three Essential Rules of Successful, Effective Editing!

    I’ve learned one really important thing when it comes to writing, which is entirely different than editing. This trick makes a world of difference whether you’re writing a screenplay or a TV pilot or a novel or memoir or blog or ad copy. If you’re writing, you need to be doing this one thing. In Read more

  • No Article This Week

    My computer died. (It was so dramatic. It froze, and then the start up disk disappeared. I was texting Apple tech support for about three hours before they decided it was better to just send it in to be repaired.) It’s been a little hard to try and get anything done with my phone, and Read more

  • On Chadwick Boseman’s Passing

    As if this year wasn’t bad enough we lost a great one. He didn’t even let the world know he was sick, choosing to slip quietly back into the universe. It’s devastating. In my most basic fan-girl state I’m sad about the loss of T’Challa; a monumental force in the world of superheroes. But he Read more

  • How to Work and Write and Not Go Crazy

    Finding a balance between following your dreams and working to pay the bills. Writing is amazing if you love it. But for most of us trying to break into the business, it isn’t lucrative. (In fact, I wrote a whole dang post about things I do to manage my money specifically so writers can keep Read more

  • Rage! Vexation! Empurpling! – Writing Effective Anger.

    Anger is a weird emotion. It’s very basic — compare it to envy or trepidation or love — but that does not mean it is necessarily easy to write. It can be both basic and enormously complex. Anger sucks. Being angry is hard and raw and weird. As with most things, even though the concept Read more

  • Kids Like Pizza: Writing Realistic Children!

    Let’s talk about the differences between writing children in screenplays and novels, versus writing adults! This post is part of the Dialogue Doctor Series, where I talk about writing effective dialogue! I wish I could say writing child characters was the same as writing adults but I’d be wrong. Further still, I wish I could Read more

  • Gremlin’s Adventures in Influencing

    I’ve been trying my hand at ‘influencer’-y things (ugh) and trying to get over my massive amounts of self-consciousness. It feels futile; I’m not influential. My 75 followers probably don’t want any influencing. It’s just kind of a silly experiment. Especially since I can’t go out and see things and take pictures in cool locations, Read more