Wouldn’t it be great if you had your own writer fairy godmother? If there’s a way to transform a pumpkin into a carriage for Cinderella, it’s not asking too much for some assistance in the depths of editing despair. Confession—there is no magic wand to turn a messy first draft of your work in progress
There’s no disadvantage to being an unpublished author—agents and editors love them—but it never hurts to look like you know what you are doing. I’ve compiled a list of things I wish I had known before I started submitting. These are style and formatting notes that will make your final draft appear more polished. Some
From the day I started writing fiction, I’ve heard about the critical importance of character arcs, which for the sake of brevity we can think of as a journey of change. It’s almost a mantra: Major characters must change. I recently took an online class with author Kathryn Craft that focused on character arcs. (Raiders
I love writing classes. They so often offer unexpected surprises. I’d like to share a tip from a recent class that made an impact on me. Veronia Rossi talked about revision. She said read your work and look for the sentences that are vague and general. They’re missing specifics. They’re using a phrase you’ve read
In my latest release, I tell the story of five sisters who changed history by asking to inherit land in a male-dominated society. I’m sure the daughters of Zelophehad were fearful of upsetting their relatives, and I was fearful of writing their story. How would I bring five characters to life on the page? I
Lesson 3 People Your characters are the heart of the story, so you want them to be right. What do they look like? What do they wear? What is their occupation? What manners and mores are typical for their times? When you decide on what time frame you have set for them, and where, it
From time to time, I take a moment to reflect where I’m at in my life and where I want to go. During one of these reflections, I read about habits of successful people. You should know I define success not only as financial stability, but also about our journey as individuals and what we
Everywhere I looked, a potential story scene loomed. Who was she meeting in that corner room? Why is she rocking out in front of everyone with her happy dance? That's what attending the Write Touch Conference did to me. It inspired me to be creative and share my tales through the power of the written
If you’ve ever experienced the heaviness of writer’s block, you know you’ll never want to stare at a blank page, without an idea, ever again, period. Let’s learn from the bad times and turn them into something good. Here are a few tips I use to build an idea factory, when writer’s block may hit
As the new year begins, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. One of the toughest things about becoming a writer is discipline. We all know a book doesn’t write itself and no matter how much praying we do, the words don’t always come. I have been writing a long time…well, sort of. I