Writing

How to Stay Motivated When Writing Feels Like an Uphill Battle

How to Stay Motivated When Writing Feels Like an Uphill Battle — sound familiar? This month, the MRC Crew is welcoming cozy mystery author Cindy McDonald (aka C.S. McDonald), who’s stopping by with some much-needed encouragement for all of us…

A Writer’s Secret Weapon: Third-Person Limited Point of View

This week on the Mystery Review Crew, we’re diving into the art of writing in the third-person limited point of view—a narrative technique we believe is every writer’s secret weapon. Third-person limited not only enables authors to explore a character’s…

What Is a Spicy Book Rating System?

If you’ve ever dived into the world of romance books or stumbled across a BookTok recommendation, you’ve probably heard the term “spicy” thrown around. But what exactly does it mean? And what is this spicy book rating system readers and…

Why the Thesaurus should be a writer’s best friend

From Monotony to Mastery: The Art of Avoiding Repetitive Words in Fiction. A Mystery Review Crew Spotlight on Writing with a Thesaurus. Have you ever perused the pages of a book in a bookstore and then set it aside? Or…