Apr 11, 2022
Religion in Your Fiction
Just as sensory details, colors, rich language, and having all the right junk in all the right places in your narrative, adds depth,...
Apr 4, 2022
Deadlines and Drama
I’m on a deadline today to complete this article about deadlines. Working to a deadline means completing something by a specified date....
Mar 28, 2022
Reimagine A Fairy Tale
Fire up your imagination and start working it. Sort through the many classics, fairy tales, fables, parables, and myths out there and...
Mar 21, 2022
Write With a Rainbow of Color
I’m not talking about making your prose colorful, I’m talking about using colors and color descriptions in your writing. We know writing...
Mar 14, 2022
All About the Blurbs – What Are They? How Do You Write Them? How Do Authors Ask for Them?
A blurb is a brief, persuasive, and promotional part of a book’s back cover that describes or summarizes the story. It may be written by...
Mar 7, 2022
Writing Tip Refresher
We could all use a refresher, with basic tips, to strengthen our writing. Sentences too long in length may bore the reader. Choppy...
Feb 28, 2022
Write a Kickass Author Bio
Some authors have more trouble writing their author bio than they do drafting their book. The author bio is an essential weapon to have...
Feb 21, 2022
Synopsis? What Fresh Hell is This?
You can douse it with Holy water, drive a stake through its heart, or shoot it with a silver bullet, but it’s not going to fade away...
Feb 14, 2022
Love, Romance, and All That Gooey Stuff - Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine’s Day! Ain’t love grand? I’ve been married for almost 37 years. In today’s world where 50% of marriages end in divorce...
Feb 7, 2022
Cool Titles, Cool Titles, No Whammies! Chapter Titles – Yay or Nay-Nay
Some authors love chapter titles, others, not so much. I think we can all agree it’s important for the pages of a book to be divided into...
Jan 31, 2022
Stink, Stank, Stunk, and All That Clairvoyant Jazz - Describing the 5 Senses Plus Intuition
So, we know by now the importance of adding sensory details to every scene. It helps the reader visualize exactly what’s going on, with...
Jan 24, 2022
Crazy Eights - Plot, Protagonist, & Platitudes
So, you’ve typed The End on the last page of your manuscript and you’re feeling mighty proud. Wine glasses up, (milk glasses for under...
Jan 17, 2022
Building Characters from the Toes Up
From perfectly pedicured toes to the top of sleekly coifed hair, physical appearance is a reasonable step for a writer to take when...
Jan 10, 2022
Beating the Winter Writing Blues
If you’re in a winter writing slump I’ve got inspiration on tap. Writers are like snowflakes; all different, all beautiful in our own...
Jan 3, 2022
Sugar and Spice and Writing So Nice
Sometimes writing begins with a kernel of an idea that kickstarts a paragraph or plot and grows into a novel. Other times writers throw...
Dec 20, 2021
The F.B.I. Probably Has a File on Me
You may be under the impression that you only need to research if you’re writing a nonfiction book. So not true. Get in the know, get on...
Dec 13, 2021
Comp Titles – Yay or Nay-Nay
Comp titles or comparative titles are published books that parallel a writer’s manuscript in some way; same genre, or similar features....
Dec 6, 2021
Knickerbocker Dirty Neck, Johnny Bottles, Dolly Dimples, and Redtop
At five-years-old, Mother handed me a crisp new Lincoln and rattled off three essentials. First stop, the butcher for a pound of...
Nov 29, 2021
Spin the Genie’s Genre Bottle
Today there are a plethora of genres. More than ever before. Add in sub-genres and we’re talking over a hundred. Did I mention genres...
Nov 22, 2021
The Five Senses
To breathe life into your writing, appeal to your readers by incorporating the five senses or at least two or three. Readers want to know...