Imagine, if you will, you’re reading a World War II novel. The main character has sent her loved one off to France, and the last she heard, he was missing in action. Her hopes of wearing her mother’s wedding dress and standing beside him in the chapel are dashed to pieces, right along with her […]
Beginnings, Middles, Endings
BEGINNINGS, MIDDLES, ENDINGS Beginnings, middles, and endings are all part of life itself. As authors, we control how our stories begin, what happens in the middle, and how they end. To skillfully weave together character, settings, and plot, drawing readers in at the beginning, keeping them engaged throughout the middle, and leaving them satisfied at […]
Dry Times ~ Facing the Blank Page
Every writer faces dry times, when the words just won’t flow. That blank page (or screen) can seem like an insurmountable barrier, especially when moving from one project to the next. For months–years for some of us–we’ve held our characters firmly in our minds, spilling their stories out onto hundreds of heartfelt pages. When we […]
Take a Good Look at the Negatives
Remember the days of 35 mm cameras that stored images on rolls of film? When the rolls were full, we took them to a store with a lab and had them developed. And always, in the envelope along with the developed photos were these seemingly unimportant dark brown strips of the original film from which […]
Writing Your Way
Early in my writing, it made me feel like I wasn’t ever going to be good enough. The number of conferences and workshops I attended didn’t matter. Adding books on the craft of writing to my library wouldn’t help. I would never be able to rise above being a mediocre writer without hope becoming more. […]
Someday
I stumbled across a meme the other day on Pinterest. It said, “Someday you’re going to be someone’s favorite author.” It has a nice ring to it. Wouldn’t you agree? I think most writers dream that they will become a reader’s favorite author. But they don’t stop and think about what it means. I did […]
Street Teams (#1)
I’m talking about street teams in this post. In the picture are four of my favorite readers, my children! Since I don’t have a street team yet, I chose this picture because they’re doing what a street team member does–promoting an author’s work. For the next few months, besides pounding out a rough draft and […]
Write Through It
It’s almost that time of year. The time when the air starts to cool off just a bit in the evenings (at least here in the south), the traffic increases in the mornings and afternoons every Monday through Friday, and each Friday night finds most of the school gathered down at the football field, rooting […]