by Suzanne Woods Fisher So…you’ve got a book contract. Congratulations! But now it’s time to sell your book. Your publisher has a marketing plan, but the focus is on retail outlets. You want to try to help your book gain altitude. But how? By thinking small – book by book, reader by reader. You can make a difference! You are …
The Ticking Clock: A Novel Timeline
by Janet Chester Bly We started in July. Our deadline for Stuart Brannon: The Final Shot was November 1st. Steve left us 7,000 words, a one-page synopsis and a list of characters. We assigned ourselves to listen to the audio versions of the first six original books of the Stuart Brannon Series. We immersed ourselves in the character of Stuart …
The Importance of Character Quirks!
by MaryLu Tyndall Character quirks are one of the many things that help create a vision of the character in the reader’s mind. They help separate the character from others in the book and give them a unique visible or internal quality. Let’s face it, in a book, it’s much harder to define and separate characters than it is in …
Take Another Step
by Kathy Harris What do you do when you see a fork in the road? You pray. Hard. And then you take a step. How many times have we all faced a difficult decision? A roadblock? A detour? Not knowing which way to turn. Wondering what God has in mind for us. How many times have you felt that way …
What’s in a Name?
by Lisa Jordan While working on my third novel, I emailed my agent and asked her thoughts about my characters’ names. She suggested I change one because having two old-fashioned names may confuse the reader with the genre. So I changed my male character’s name to something a little more modern. One of the most used books on my bookshelf …
Enhancing Your Creativity
By Victoria Bylin Wouldn’t it be nice if creativity were a faucet you could turn on and off? Imagine a shiny chrome spigot with a fancy handle, the kind that moves in a circle and changes temperature and flow with a flick of your wrist. Add a fancy sprayer that can be adjusted from a heavy stream to a mist, …
How One Simple Trick Made My Novels Come Alive
by Sandra Orchard From a young age, we’re taught to not be tardy. We’re told that punctuality is a virtue, and that being early is even better. Not so in writing. The trick that took my novels from good to published was this… Start late. Leave early. Think about that for a minute. Start late. Leave early. Readers are intelligent …
When You’ve Lost Your Voice
by Sandra Heska King I’ve been reading this week about Zachariah in Luke 1. He draws the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve behind the curtains. The greatest day of his life. He’s gone a long time though, and the people outside get concerned. Not to worry. He’s just back there in the holy of holies talking to Gabriel about a discarded …
What’s Your Writing Worth?
by Jordyn Redwood It’s tax season. Are you currently evaluating what your writing is worth? My husband, who is an accountant, came up to me and asked, “Do you know how much you’ve spent on writing this last year?” It was more than I thought. Even though I’m in a three-book contract, my earnings are still below my expenses. Considering …
Scene Beginnings
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”… -Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Not a bad beginning, eh? When we sit down to craft the opening line of our novel, I think almost all of us are aware of the golden opportunity before us. But do we realize we have small gems of …