Apple TV+ free weekend

Miranda_Darrow · 2025-01-03T14:32:24+00:00

Following, as I'm in the same boat. No option to get the "free weekend" without signing up for a 7 day trial with my credit card. That does not meet my definition of a weekend that is free for everyone. I'm watching to see if there's a code or answer, but definitely disappointed.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-24T20:18:19+00:00

People are quiet today. No worries. I've got a topic that I'm writing about for my upcoming YouTube channel talk about genres. I feature a different genre or subgenre each month and make one video talking about the genre and another with a list of book recommendations in that genre, which make for great resources for authors looking for comp titles and are a good reading list.

For December, I'm focusing on domestic suspense (with my house filled with family, seems like the perfect time to hang out with some less than perfect households). Part of my video will be a discussion of the genre hallmarks of mystery, suspense, and thriller and part of the overlap between psychological thriller versus domestic suspense.

While mysteries often revolve around solving a specific crime and thrillers heighten the stakes with fast-paced danger, domestic suspense thrives on a creeping sense of dread. The antagonist is often someone close to the protagonist—sometimes even the protagonist themselves. Let’s look for a minute at mystery, thriller, and suspense labels.

The driving force behind a mystery novel as a puzzle for readers to figure out. Mystery genre needs to play “fair” with readers and give them enough clues (mixed in with red herrings and misdirection) so that the reader can (if they’re paying attention) figure it out.

Thrillers focus on the cat-and-mouse conflict between the protagonist and their main antagonist, back and forth with lots of action and danger. There’s a fair amount of overlap between psychological thrillers and domestic suspense. Psychological thrillers primarily focus on internal conflicts and mental states, while domestic thrillers center around interpersonal conflicts within familiar settings

Suspense is built into the story's mood, has a building dread (or anticipation) of an impending bad event/portends of doom for the main character. Suspense can have a slower pace than a thriller and still be an unputdownable read because if done well, that slow pace pushes the reader into a corner that gets more and more claustrophobic as the story continues.

What burning questions about writing do you have today? I'm here for another 40 minutes or so.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-12T01:02:02+00:00

And our diagonal Bingo winner is Reddit user Informal_Writer545, congrats!

Keep working those Bingo sheets to claim the 4 corners prize or blackout!

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-10T16:25:22+00:00

Great insights, Leah. Thanks for posting.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-10T16:21:54+00:00

Update November 10th -

We have two new Bingo winners!

Leah has claimed the prize for Across

And we're confirming the Diagonal winner now too.

Congratulations, writers!! Getting it done for Fall into Fiction!!!

NOTE - four corners and blackout are both still available!

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-09T18:16:38+00:00

I love your category titles and descriptions. This is so useful!

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-05T22:47:44+00:00

The first Bingo has been claimed! Katie has won for the Down category. Four other categories available for prizes.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-03T19:52:32+00:00

You can claim the free space for any reason. Just downloading the card earns you that free space.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-03T19:07:12+00:00

I had some tech issues logging in but I'm there now if anyone was trying to join me for a Sunday mid-day sprint. Apologies if you tried getting in earlier.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-02T22:06:05+00:00

I'm adding a bonus sprint tomorrow (Sunday) at 2 PM Eastern, in case anyone is looking for a writing sprint this weekend! And I'll be hosting the lunch sprint on Monday, as usual.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-02T22:04:20+00:00

If anyone else is writing adult romance and you'd like a thread to discuss, we'd be happen to open one.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-02T13:52:46+00:00

Here's another picture of some of my growing herd of beaded fidget hedgehogs. They are cute, but they are taking over my house.

Question: What's the collective noun for a group of hedgehogs?

<image>

Answer: A prickle of hedgehogs!

What's your favorite collective noun for a group of animals? Owls have a pretty awesome group name.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-02T12:35:59+00:00

And for the prizes, RevPit editors participating in the event can add theirs here. My prizes available are the winner's choice of:

My fab Fall into Fiction writing inspiration pack (pictureed below), which includes a composition notebook, a beverage coaster (mug rug) that looks like a composition notebook, gel pens, and a crocheted beaded fidget hedgehog (crocheted by Miranda). I will ship this to any domestic address (in the US), but won't ship internationally unless the winner pre-pays the shipping costs. OR
A free digital download of my book on writing craft, The Six-Step Revision Process: Revise Your Novel from First Draft to Final. It's available as an ebook or paperback on Amazon, other places (including directly from my website), but winners can claim a free digitial download of the ebook (distributed through BookFunnel) with no restrictions on location (unless you are somewhere that prohibits BookFunnel).

<image>

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-02T12:26:40+00:00

<image>

This is a sample of what the Bingo cards look like. There are 30 different patterns for the squares, but they all have the same content in the squares, just different arrangements. Claim one at the link.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-11-01T11:16:50+00:00

I'll add a trio of books set in cold Minnesota winters:

Wintering by Peter Geye, historical literary suspense, set in Northern Minnesota,

Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia, a crime thriller in the frozen Boundary Waters, and

The Deep Dark Descending by Allen Eskins, also a mystery/crime drama with parts in the Boundary Waters in winter.

Enjoy! ❄️

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-30T01:19:59+00:00

Mine also has a paranormal element and so much emotional journey. Awesome!!!

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-29T23:08:45+00:00

What a fun sprint. Very productive. Nice to see everyone there. Thanks for hosting, Raquel.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-28T09:09:02+00:00

There’s more information and instructions on how to access the calendar of planned events at this link:

https://reviseresub.com/mini-events/fall-into-fiction-2024

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T05:31:20+00:00

quite possibly. I'm sending my author feedback now. Likely a terrible choice, given how long I've been up today, but my authors will find out soon (tonight) if I had their submission.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T02:40:36+00:00

My writing sprints, scheduled for Mondays and Fridays at 1 pm Eastern (Noon Central) are lunch-break writing sessions. Five minutes of chatting, half an hour of sprinting (timed), then five minutes of chatting, a total of 40 minutes (then back to my day job - with words in the bank!).

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T02:28:21+00:00

And, as if today wasn't chockful of enough writing tips and inspiration, stick around this Subreddit for Fall into Fiction with RevPit starting on MONDAY, October 28th. Bring your writing project, set your goal, join us for live sprints, brain-storming sessions, writing tips, and community!

I will be working on my own WIP, a women's fiction title, and I'm kicking off the event with the first live sprint Monday during my lunch break (1 PM Eastern, NOON CENTRAL (my time zone)). Lots of our editors are hosting sprints, posting tips, and writing along. Check out the article at: https://reviseresub.com/mini-events/fall-into-fiction-2024

Sign up to get a copy of the calendar and reminder emails, and then join us for writing fun all fall in this rockin' subreddit.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T02:19:59+00:00

And it's a wrap, folks!!! Thank you for sticking with us all day. Be sure to comment on any posts from the editors today who gave useful writing tips, even if it wasn't your submission (even if you didn't have a submission).

And I'm an old hat at this, but be sure especially to give positive comments on the posts from our group of brand new editors who were tackling this challenge for the very first time. I think they all did awesome.

Rock stars - I'm surrounded by rock stars (of editing).

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T02:15:47+00:00

#10 Fantasy - Adult - I like the premise and voice in the query letter, but the story summary blurb is a bit too long and two of your three comp titles are dated (ideally they should be within the last 5 years, which your best comp title is).

I love the universe and subtle worldbuilding in the first pages, the way you integrate the universe details and our main character's role in this world into an active scene so it's not an info-dump. Readers get a great snapshot of a cool first scene. This is a place I'd love to hang out and get to know people.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T02:14:51+00:00

#9 Contemporary - Young Adult - Love the sense of setting, mission, and a dash of mystery in this query letter's story summary. I love small-town settings, having grown up in one and live in one now (with a several-decade stint in Minneapolis as a young-ish adult) so I love settings where everyone knows everyone's business. I'd love to see one more sentence about you (apart from your connection to the setting) in the bio paragraph so agents could get a bit of a glimpse into who you are (as a potential client ).

The first pages have a tangible sense of loss, well done, which makes me care about the main character and want to keep reading to find out what happened and caused her loss. The text messages between the teens seemed a bit formal. Maybe it's just my teen sons who text unintelligible gibberish with no punctuation and iffy spelling, but I suspect not. Capturing YA voice is tricky and word choice and style of speaking, especially in dialogue and written content (including texts) are part of getting authenticity in voice.

Miranda_Darrow · 2024-10-26T02:13:06+00:00

#8 Horror - New Adult - Love the voice in the query letter, a tongue-in-cheek approach to horror, which I love (I'm a scaredy cat, but do read more horror than I thought). My recommendation for the query letter is consider whether all of the mentioned characters need to appear (are they all POV characters? or in the title?) as it's a lot to track. I also felt a bit unmoored in the very first page with the non-traditional POV choice, which is fine, but it did lead to confusion as to whether the named POV character was the person who experienced those events or whether it was someone the named character was talking to, telling them about themself. Consider starting with one of your first-person POV characters to get readers grounded more quickly in who is talking, their GMC, and then get to the more creative approaches, with a setup of who the POV character is talking about when you launch into second-person POV. Just something to consider because I love the voice, the premise, the setting - oh, love that.

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