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 …
Plot Twists: The Paralegal Chronicles
By Kathleen Y’Barbo Next year I will celebrate twenty years of being a published author. This year I surpassed the 90-book mark and reached more than two million copies in sales. Where have the years gone? When I sat down at my Canon StarWriter word processor, I had no idea that someday I would be looking back with a body …
Resolving Tension
By Sarah Hamaker As writers, we work with tension all the time—without tension, our stories would sag and our heroes and heroines would have very boring relationships. But this blog is about the tension we experience between what we want to work on and what we have to work on. For many of us, writing is not our fulltime job. …
Tips for Fighting the Dreaded Writer’s Block
By Amy Clipston Through the years I’ve found that my book projects fall into two categories—they either write themselves or writing them feels like having my teeth drilled. In other words, the characters either tell me the story or I push them through the story as if they were dead weight. My book Room on the Porch Swing, which releases …
Observations from a Writer
By Denise Hunter Most writers are observers by nature, aren’t we? We observe ourselves, we observe others, then we use what we observe in our writing. Like the other day. I was driving down the road alone and had to brake suddenly for a cat. What was my response to potential disaster? (Yeah, some people don’t consider a dead cat …
How to Write a Novel
By Henry McLaughlin When I’m introduced as a writer to a group of non-writers I get a wide range of reactions. Some look at me as if I’m from another planet. Others back away as if they might catch a strange disease. In my early days, one person asserted I couldn’t be a writer because I wasn’t published yet. Made …
The Dream Cabin
By Mary Lou Cheatham An author, who is incapable of practicing generic purism, has tried one more time to write a romance. Each time in the past, she has not abided by the guidelines. Every book she has written up to now contains a romance, but they are not true romances. This time she hoped to succeed. Referring to manuals …
Back Story – When & How
By Ane Mulligan When I first started writing, I did what most new writers do. Believing the reader couldn’t understand my story or like the heroine without knowing her back story, I loaded the first chapter with all that information. It didn’t take too many critiques to learn the error of my ways. But why is it not necessary? I’m …
Fall down, get up. Again.
By Davalynn Spencer When we hear that people have experience in a particular field or endeavor, we often equate that experience with success and only success. However, if that were the case, their experience would not be genuine. Experience bleeds. Last month at a multi-author event for the local college, I met a woman who is a licensed pilot. She’s …
Changing the Past
By Loretta Eidson Last Sunday, Steven Goudeaux, pastor of our East Memphis church, made several powerful statements during the morning service, but one, in particular, caught my attention. “You can change your past,” he said. I lifted my eyebrows and listened while I waited for his explanation. My curiosity piqued. There’s nothing too difficult for God, but how would Pastor …