By Martha Rogers From early on in my writing days, I was taught to write what I knew most about. During my college days, that didn’t amount to a whole lot in my opinion. In looking back at those days and some of the manuscripts, I find stories about high school romances, college days, and perfect families. I was writing …
Capturing Your Romance Reader’s Heart
By Norma Gail You don’t have to compete with the greatest romance ever written to capture the heart of your reader. You have to make them fall in love with your character. Think of the most romantic line you have ever heard. So many great lines have been written and spoken over the years that it seems impossible to come …
Does a Newsletter Scare You? Five Ways to Rock It!
By Cynthia Herron As social media networks continue to limit our visibility (unless we buy their ads so they, in turn, will promote our posts/statuses), what’s a writer to do? How do we reach those we care about? Well, there are two things we can do (and yes, you’ve heard this before): blog and build our email lists-engage through our …
Character Profiles
By Loretta Eidson After moving into a new neighborhood, I moseyed to the swing on the front porch. My neighbors stirred about filling hummingbird feeders, weeding flowerbeds, and walking their dogs. Curiosity mounted as I sipped coffee and enjoyed the cool of the morning. Who were these people and how long had they lived here? Did they have a family? …
Crafting the Villain
By Kariss Lynch We’re all born sinful, but I don’t believe any of us are born inherently evil. Hitler didn’t start out thinking he would become a mass murderer. Life experiences, his choices, and what he fed his mind and heart led to the blackness of his character. While Hitler is an extreme example, I believe the same could be …
The Dreaded S-Word
By Bonnie Calhoun There is nothing in this writing world that can elicit more dread and loathing than saying the simple word ‘synopsis.’ The definitions of the word range from ‘a brief summary or general survey of something’ to ‘an outline of the plot of a book…’ So we are going to discuss writing a brief outline of a book. …
Help! Another author wrote my story!
By Anne Mateer Have you ever read a book with the sinking feeling that the story seems so very, very familiar? In fact, it seems almost an exact replica of the story you are writing or have written. A story this author knows nothing about, just as you knew nothing about theirs. The farther you read in the already-published book, …
Writing Productivity, Big and Small Chunk Style
By Allie Pleiter How much writing do you get done in a sitting? The answer feeds a lot more than your progress toward a deadline-it can tell you a lot about your writing life and writing needs. What do I mean by “big” or “small”? While my book goes into much greater detail, the basic concept is this: If you …
Ten Tips for a Satisfying Radio Interview
By Cynthia Ruchti The success of a radio interview is as easy to calculate as the number of baby guppies born in the night. Did listeners rush to their local bookstore to purchase or order the book? Were there more than two people listening? Please, God? Since God is the only one with answers to those questions about numbers and …
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
By Elizabeth Musser We’ve all heard the quip, when starting out on the writing journey, ‘don’t quit your day job.’ It is usually offered by a caring friend (or editor) who knows that making a living in the writing world can be daunting. But I’ve found that keeping my day job has not only put food on the table, but …