By Donna K. Rice The week before Thanksgiving I got a phone call to come home to Wyoming. My father’s congestive heart failure had taken a sudden negative turn and my sisters wanted help making some decisions. I planned on being home in Indiana for the holiday with my kids and grandchildren so a flurry of activity and phone calls …
Outlining – Step By Step
By Gail Gaymer Martin Though I use a brief synopsis to set up my storyline, I sometimes outline parts such as a suspense novel. Once the character is developed, the beginning and ending of the book and the black moment, begin to build the plot, scene by scene no matter if it’s a novel, novella, and even a short story. …
Don’t Neglect Life for Writing
By Anne Mateer Do you desire to populate your stories with people that leap off the page, characters that “live” in readers’ imaginations? I sure do. But that kind of writing usually doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires engagement. In life. With people. I’m in that “empty nest” season. I thought it would be great with no kids in …
Top 20 Ways Writers Spread Joy
by Cynthia Herron Now that Thanksgiving’s over and Christmas is just around the corner, writing may take a back seat as we prepare for the next big holiday. We’ll celebrate the birth of our Savior, visit with family, and of course, dine all things deelish during our Norman Rockwell picture-perfect moments. (I can hardly wait!) Still, while I adore the …
Cross Promotion and the Christian Author
By Carrie Fancett Pagels RWA’s magazine, RWR, recently featured an excellent article on marketing. One of the points they made, besides the obvious point that you must write the very best book that you can, is to link up with other authors and cross promote. As a blogger for many years, I’ve had the privilege of promoting many bestselling Christian …
Giving Thanks
by Laura McClellan This writing adventure can be lonely and discouraging. We spend a lot of time alone with the ideas and words in our minds, and we can work for months, even years, with no “success” as the world defines it. It can wear a writer down. But I’ve come to believe that much of our happiness comes from …
Platform Isn’t a Dirty Word
By Ane Mulligan Everyone hates the word platform. But stay with me here. If you’re a writer, you need one. These days, only the top 10% or less of writers have people who do all the marketing for them. Let’s face it, the rest of us have to market. And you have to have a sphere of influence to market …
Paralysis of Perfection
By Karen H. Richardson It happens to the experienced and the inexperienced among us. It happens when we least expect it or have time for it. We desire to put words on a page to tell a story, share an emotion, or express some great truth. We have a list of topics and an outline. We want each syllable to …
Bringing Characters to Life
By Henry McLaughlin A story without people is not a story. I’m not sure what it is but it’s not a story. You can have a great plot and beautiful settings, but if your characters are not alive, you just have words on a page. There are numerous tools available to help us create characters. Meyer-Briggs, Gary Chapman’s Five Love …
A Seemingly Innocent Question
By Suzanne Kuhn, SuzyQ The holiday season is almost here, and this is a good time to use relevant subjects on your social media. However, please be aware that you may open a can of worms. Don’t be afraid of it; just proceed with caution. I like to ask questions that get my friends and followers thinking and revealing bits …