by Cheryl Wyatt Building platform and name recognition are as crucial to publishing as quotation marks to a killer line of dialogue. You may have an engaging hook and stellar book, but if you’re not on readers’ radars, low sales can impede future contracts. Even if you write as worship, marketing matters. If you’re pre-published, now is a good time …
Three Steps to Creating an Occupation for Your Characters
by Cara C. Putman As writers, one of our tasks is finding the right career for your characters. Not only do your characters populate your story, they fill roles and hold jobs. Finding the right career can be a key piece to getting the character to fit. Sometimes when I pick up a novel, it feels like the character’s job …
Fit & Fabulous Writing
By Kathy Harris Did you charge out of the starting blocks with the first three chapters of a great new story idea… but now you’re having trouble crossing the finish line? Does your first draft sag in the middle? Maybe your plot needs a bit of firming up. You might benefit from a new writing routine. Fitness coaches tell us …
One is a Lonely Number
by Aaron McCarver I have heard many authors refer to writing as a lonely career. Many speak of hours in chairs in front of computers plucking out scenes and characters with no others around. While this may be partially true for some of the actual work, a Christian writer should never think of writing as a career for a lonely …
Should a Christian Market Themselves?
by Jordyn Redwood Over the last six months or so, I’ve been reading a lot about marketing to help support the release of my debut medical thriller, Proof. Strangely, I came across an attitude among certain circles that it is unchristian like behavior to market your novel-essentially claiming that “pushing your product” is prideful and therefore sinful. This is how …
A Change of Perspective
by Eileen Key Writing is a solitary journey, and sometimes we are asked to move from behind our computer screens and step out of our comfort zones. I find myself quaking in my boots when asked to speak to a group about me, myself and I. Yes, I’m proud of my work; yes, I can tell you how a book …
What is your writing budget?
by Danica Favorite If you’re going to take your writing seriously as a business, one of the things you need to consider is your writing budget. A writer’s income isn’t always steady, so if you don’t have a plan for your writing income, it’s easy for that money to get lost on other things. Oftentimes, a person’s plan for attending …
Quills of a Feather Should Flock Together
by Ane Mulligan I’m having dinner in a restaurant with the hubs and friends, when a snippet of a conversation at the table behind me catches my attention. Tuning out my friends’ chatter, I lean back in my seat to get closer. A female voice hints at panic. “I left my camera in the taxi.” It sparks a “what if” …
The Emotion Thesaurus
by Vickie McDonough As a writer, I’m always looking for resources to help make my writing better and my characters more realistic. To show and not tell and to find new ways to say the same thing. Well, I found a doozy of a resource. For a long while, the Bookshelf Muse has posted a Character Traits Thesaurus in the …
Research That Has Nothing To Do With Google or Libraries or Trips to Historic Sites
By Victoria Bylin I write historical romance, so I’m often asked about research. Do I like it? Do I prefer the internet or real libraries? Do I research and then write, or research on the fly? What mistakes should a new author avoid? All those questions are important, but today I want to look at a different kind of research. …