by Donald L. Reavis It’s Thanksgiving Day. I expect you’re looking for a heart-touching, tear-jerking story of a Thanksgiving past. I did my research and found one that may fit that description. This comes from an old friend of mine, William Lindberg. Over fifty years ago, William and his young wife, Claire, left their family in Wisconsin and moved west …
The Garden Theory of Writing and Publishing
By Cynthia Ruchti @cynthiaruchti A writer and an agent were chatting over lunch one day. The writer had been at it a long time, had planted many different kinds of stories, but nothing had taken root. The agent asked, “What do like most about gardening with words?” The writer said, “Being in the garden.” “It is beautiful here, isn’t it? …
Speed Writing
By Joni M. Fisher @authorjonimfisher I challenge you to write a novel in a month. It sounds impossible, but hear me out. How many best-selling authors publish a book every year? Barbara Cartland, the Queen of Romance, wrote over 700 novels. Isaac Asimov wrote 500. Nora Roberts has written 225. James Patterson has 100. John Grisham has over 50. Calculate …
The Power of the First Line
by Rachel Hauck “One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph… In the first paragraph, you solve most of the problems of your book. The theme is defined, the style, the tone. At least in my case, the paragraph is a kind of sample of what the rest of the book is going to be.” — Gabriel García Márquez, …
Keeping the Muse
By Neva Bodin I spoke at a writers conference a couple of years ago about keeping the muse. I’m thinking all writers must have one. What is a muse? One source said the word originated in Greek literature and was introduced by Chaucer in his writings. It is “Any of the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom …
Curveballs
By Martha Boswell Scripture: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways…” ~Isaiah 55:8 (NKJV) Growing up, I had three brothers who played baseball. Since my dad was a pastor and a sports enthusiast, our lives revolved around worship services and practice schedules. My first word—after ‘Mama and Daddy’—was ‘ballgame.’ Most afternoons my stroller was …
Make Your Metaphors Marvelous
by Leslie DeVooght Don’t waste a chance to make your writing flourish with weak metaphors or worse, clichés. As a writer of Southern Fiction, sometimes it’s hard for me to not use one of the tried and true phrases. I mean “bless your heart” and “she’s as pretty as a peach,” will work in a pinch, and they do scream …
What’s in a Name?
by Deborah Raney There are many different ways authors come up with names for their characters and even more stories surrounding character names. Here are just a few of my stories. I wanted 12 kids and had a list of 24 names for boys and girls long before my first baby was born. Some of those names that I didn’t …
Be a Different Egg. Don’t Get Scrambled!
By Cynthia Herron @C_Herronauthor All of us have met people who are “different eggs.” Different eggs march (or roll) to the beat of a very distinct drum. They come from various walks of life and they have a unique approach to the world around them. Maybe you’re one of those eggs–a delightful creative who thinks in the abstract and acts …
Something to Write About
by Suzanne Lee I was eight years old when I first put a poem on paper. I had sung and dreamed many before then, an unconscious imitator of Nash, Stephenson, and Walter de la Mare, of Shakespeare’s elegant conversational cadences, of the rich flavor of hymns and chants in Latin and English that had pervaded my childhood, and of the …