By Beth K. Vogt We writers talk a lot about how to prepare for a writers conference, don’t we? We discuss our elevator pitches and our one sheets and how to polish our manuscripts, all the while planning our travel itineraries and our roommates and our wardrobes. Hundreds of you attended the ACFW conference in Nashville a couple of weeks …
Got Conference Nerves? You’re Not Alone!
By Grace Hitchcock Three years ago, I attended my first writers conference and I cannot tell you how nervous I felt! Doubts flew through my head: I’m a poser. These men and women have so much more experience than me and I think I can write? I just finished my novel three weeks ago…. I’ve never pitched to an agent before! …
Three Boredom-Busting Tips
By Linda W. Yezak “The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself”—John Mortimer. If you follow Mortimer’s rule not to bore yourself, chances are good you won’t bore your reader either. So how do you make certain your reader stays hooked throughout your novel? The basic answer is to have a …
Self-Promotion: The Ugly, The Bad… and The Good?
By Michael Anthony Torres Thanks to Steve Laube for the questions that inspired this meditation. The increasing demand for self-promotion is arguably a by-product of the internet and the democratization of publicity. Surely, there are many more who could speak to this from more of an industry insider’s perspective; but when I was a young adult reader, I don’t recall …
Writing From Your Scars
by Tara Johnson I was recently asked to give an aspiring writer my best piece of writing advice. I could have told her to study the craft, told her the best blogs to follow, or given her a checklist of a thousand other steps to pursue her dream, but after much thought, I offered my best piece of advice: write …
The Joy of Research
by Kimberley Woodhouse Research. It’s a chore to some people and a delight to others. I happen to fall into the latter camp although I must admit that sometimes I get so sucked into it that I lose track of time. Or get obsessed with something that leads me to another fascinating tidbit that leads to an incredible fact that …
10 Myths about Marketing Your Book
By DiAnn Mills What’s stopping you from marketing your book? Indecision about the tools? Fear of failure or success? How to approach social media? Heard so many cons that you’re afraid? Now is the time to debunk the following 10 myths so you can be a marketing rock star. Myth #1: All I have to do is one thing: write …
Finding Your Voice in the Sounds and the Silence
By Bethany Turner Is there anything more mysterious to a writer than the concept of voice? We all want ours to be unlike any other in the market. To be distinct and powerful. But how do we go about developing it? More often than not, the top recommendation I see is to spend time reading other writers’ writing, to examine …
A Safe Investment
By Christa MacDonald Recently, one beautiful Saturday, I hit the plant shops with my two youngest kids and bought annuals for the mailbox planter and a few herbs for the kitchen garden. Massachusetts has a short growing season and, although I begin the season planting from seed, I end up buying some to enjoy the color until fall. As I …
Crafting A Great First Line (Hooking The Reader)
By Rachel Hauck In a world where indie and traditional authors are scraping for every bit of shelf space and reader attention, we have to up our game. One of the best ways is to craft a dynamite first line. But it’s hard to craft a first line. Many of us settle for “good enough.” But here’s the power of …