by Chandra Lynn Smith I’ve been a professional dog trainer since 1988. A few years ago I trained a German Shepherd dangerous fear issues. I stood at the kennel, leash in hand and greeted her. She growled. For those of you who read my opening sentence and thought what a fun job, well, not always. I opened entered the kennel. …
Penchant Toward Drama
By Shirley E. Gould As writers, we create drama, set the scene and allow it to play out to bring our characters through the circumstances that threaten their happily-ever-after ending. It’s what we do when we create stories that grip our readers and take them on a journey through our prose. We study our craft to perfect our work, giving …
Cauliflower Shortage
By Mary Lou Cheatham My family has always enjoyed cooking and eating cauliflower, a delicious and nutritious vegetable. It’s never been unavailable in the grocery store. Suddenly the cauliflower bin is empty. It is necessary to go from store to store to find it. This year’s popular diets—paleo and low-carb—contain copious amounts of cauliflower cooked in creative ways. One popular …
Learning the Truth About Forgiveness
by Marianne Evans One of the most daunting questions I’m asked as an author is: ‘What prompted you to write this book/approach this topic/dive into these characters?’ When it comes to my release, Forgiveness, I don’t want to offer what might seem to be a quick and easy answer like: ‘I wrote it to help readers discover the mercy and …
How to Write Synopses that Editors and Agents Want to Read
by Lara Helmling Synopsis. I imagine that some of you hear that word and decide you need to vacuum the living room. To reduce your beloved novel down to a 500-word summary is almost more than you can bear. I wish I could tell you that I have a magic pill to make synopsis writing less painful. I don’t. I …
What’s Your Name?
By Tamara D. Fickas William Shakespeare wrote the famous line, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet” in Romeo and Juliet. This seems to imply that names aren’t important. Truly though, would Pride and Prejudice be the same if it were Mr. Smith who swept Elizabeth off her of …
Plotter or Pantster? Yes
By Suzanne Bratcher You’ve heard the debate: when you write, do you plan first or do you write from the seat of your pants? Until last week I was certain I was a plotter. Once I have the germ of an idea, I draw a story arc, divide the arc into three acts, divide each act into scenes, and list …
Take Me Out to the Ballpark
By Tamara D. Fickas I’m not a big sports fan. I don’t really follow any of the big sports teams, although I do sometimes root for a team based on being the underdog, or the favored team, or because I like a player. Despite not being into sports, I do love baseball. I managed the baseball team in high school …
Characters or Story: What Drives Your Writing?
by Glynn Young I was having an email exchange with a writer and poet who had just published a novel. Specifically, we were discussing how each of us wrote fiction. She had trouble, she said, with multi-viewpoint novels. Her stories tended to be character-driven, and especially lead character-driven. She said she found multi-viewpoint novels confusing. Multi-viewpoint novels are what I …
Truth in Fiction
By Melinda Eye Cooper When I was in the sixth grade, I entered an essay contest at school. The theme was What I want to be. I considered the topic for days and tossed around ideas about what to write. For the first time in my life, I asked myself the question, “What do I want to be when I grow …