by Kathy Harris “You could make a lot more money in a different career.” Those were the words of the industry professional who recently spoke at a local writers conference I attended. Everyone in the audience laughed and nodded knowingly. I suspect there were no millionaires in the room. If there were, it would be safe to say they hadn’t …
Tips to Supercharge Your Story
By DiAnn Mills When our stories lack a certain edge, we’re back to the drawing board looking for what we’ve missed. Our novels are like well-oiled machines, each part has to be fine-tuned to work effectively. When are skills, methods, and storytelling abilities creak and moan, the whole novel comes to a grinding halt. Sometimes we’re able to reach into …
A Life of Writing
By Ramona Richards One of my favorite authors will turn 82 at the end of May 2015. He’s suffered a lot of illnesses lately, including a stroke. Yet he’s still writing and selling his work, marketing it on social media and YouTube. In October, another favorite will turn 77, and she still writes three books a year, doing so by …
Switching it Up
By Carolyne Aarsen I am a self-confessed, unabashed outliner. I need to figure out my characters, fill in my character charts, use a beat sheet to lay out the story outline. I need to know where my story is going every step of the way. I discovered this over a forty some book career that if I let myself ‘write …
Writing Prompts Prompt Good Writing!
By Bruce Hennigan There once was a website called Storypraxis. Perhaps you remember it with fondness. If you subscribed to the site, you would receive a “writing prompt” every 3 days. Your job was simple. Write quickly for 20 to 30 minutes using the word or phrase as stimulus for a short, short story or a poem. No editing. No …
Reaching readers: A tale of two authors
By Suzanne Kuhn They were the best of authors, they were the worst of authors. I have had the privilege of traveling and serving hundreds of authors over the years. These range from self-published to multi-published New York Times bestselling authors. I have noticed three things that make some authors either epic or tragic. Timeless Authors Embrace Change. The only …
What Happens Next?
By Karen H. Richardson Writers have many methods for developing their story. Some are very methodical and create detailed outlines. Some have a spreadsheet that lists chapters, summaries and potential word counts. While others use writing software such as Scrivener to write and organize their thoughts. Me, I’ve tried a little of all of these methods. More than likely as …
Your Seven Staples as a Writer
by Cheryl Wyatt For this blog post, we’re going to do a little digging. The title mentions seven staples. In the case of this blog post, by staple, I mean the commodity of theme, or something regular that is unique to you and your writing. One definition of staple, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a chief commodity or production of a …
And the Greatest of These…
by Kathy Harris Read today’s headlines and you quickly realize there’s a lack of love in our world. Not the Fifty Shades of Grey kind of love. Or even the self-promoting, entitlement kind of self-love that our culture encourages. Our world needs more of the agape love that Jesus instructed us to have for one another. What does that have …
Chasing Inspiration
By Kariss Lynch In an information age, inspiration is often muted, masked, and downright frustrating to identify. It can be even more difficult to figure out where to start when beginning your writing career or beginning a new writing project. Inspiration then becomes a process of discovery. Something you search for until the story begins to fall into place. But …