By Michelle Griep, @MichelleGriep Some authors swear by writing before the sun is up. Others are nocturnal. And lots don’t have a choice, squeaking in words whenever a spare minute flares up. Which begs the question: is a certain time of day better than others to write? Short answer: Yep. Long answer: The best time to get your word count …
Impact: What Is Greatness Really?
by Jeanne Takenaka, @JeanneTakenaka I’ve lost track of how many times, in my heart of hearts, I’ve yearned to make a difference in our world. As a teen, I was sure I had big things ahead of me. I just needed to discover them and do them. Now, decades later, there are still times when I wish I could make an impact …
Filling Your Well with Fall Reading
by Katherine Reay, @Katherine_Reay After finishing a manuscript, I feel dry. All my creativity has been spent and I’m a little tired. We all have times in which we need to recharge and that moment is always mine. I believe writers need to be voracious readers. We need to be inundated with stories. But in the last days of writing something new, …
After The Honeymoon
by Tari Faris, @FarisTari My husband and I agree that the hardest part of our relationship since we started dating eighteen years ago was our engagement. What? The engagement? But that is supposed to be fun. Right. Well, it wasn’t. He was in Illinois working with a summer youth program that kept him busy from about six in the morning …
Back to Virtual School: 5 Tips For Productive Writing During This New Season
by Heidi McCahan, @HeidiMcCahan The new school year has arrived and even if you don’t have children, you’re probably still aware of this milestone event that marks the end of summer and the unofficial beginning of fall. As my own children are adjusting and adapting to the changing landscape of a school year that’s beginning online, I’ve realized now is the …
Jesus Wore a Dress: Reactionary Ideas in Our Novels
by Peter Leavell, @PeterLeavell I met a girl, Tonya. Yowzers. I liked her, and on our first date, I could do no wrong. However, the next time we got together, I couldn’t seem to say anything right. Appropriately annoyed, she challenged me. I had two options—react and defend myself, or dig deep, consider her comments, and give a true account …
My Favorite Writing Rule (That I Made Up)
by Angela Ruth Strong, @AngelaRStrong Blake Snyder made up some fun writing rules that he teaches in his book Save the Cat. Save the Cat is actually his most famous rule. It says you must make your characters likable by having them do something heroic in the beginning…like saving a cat. I appreciate these kinds of rules because they don’t …
How to Prepare for a Virtual Writers Conference
by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt I attended my first writers conference of 2020 last weekend. It was a virtual conference, with all the attendees and speakers “zooming in” from all over the world. The technical glitches were few – and I’m certain that’s because of the many prayers that were prayed during the two days, as well as the hard work …
The Fear Trap
by Andrea Christenson, @andrea143 As writers we often joke about finding ourselves doing anything to avoid writing. We do the laundry, clean out the fridge, scrub at the grout in the bathroom with an old toothbrush. Anything! Lately, I’ve been finding myself in the trap more and more often. “Just wash the dishes, then you can get a page of writing …
The Beauty of Learning to Wait
by Lisa Jordan, @lisajordan Several years ago, I celebrated a friend’s birthday by attending a pottery painting party at a local studio with our circle of friends. We had two hours to choose a piece of greenware—clay that has been shaped, but not fired yet—and paint it any way we desired. We laughed, ate the most fabulous cupcakes and celebrated …
When it feels overwhelming…
I watched 6 hours of New Girl yesterday. Not necessarily on purpose. Yesterday morning, we took our kids to the airport, our epic two week family vacation in Florida, over. (*sob!*) Then we returned home, cleaned the house and flopped onto the sofa. I pushed play on Neflix and four hours later woke up to see that we were on …
What Would You Tell Your Pre-published Self?
by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1 As I stare at the cursor blinking on the first page of my thirteenth novel, my mind searches for anything to write except what I know I must. I have a deadline looming and I only have one chapter written. The beginning of a book is the hardest for me. I don’t know my characters nearly well …