Learning By Reading

I found a book that looked interesting to me on Barnes & Noble’s site.

A story set in the ’30s and had some element of football in it. So I downloaded it.

Devoured it. The story captured me. The writing… I didn’t spend half my time rewriting the sentences in my head or pondering why the character was acting without proper motivation.

I told Susie, “You have to read this book!”

And, as it was set in the ’30s and had football element to it, she was keen to give it a go.

Two days later she emails. “I’m mad at you! I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. reading that book.”

By now, I’m dying to talk to her about it because it had some fascinating elements. But she halted me from gushing on and on until she finished.

THEN, we had a long talk, breaking it down, decided what worked, what didn’t, why we liked it, how we could learn from this author.

ACFW – Are you ready?

I’m at American Christian Fictions Writers Conference in St. Louis, Missouri this week. The place where writers and authors are gathering to learn craft and pitch their stories. For those that are yet unpublished, the anxiety before pitching can be crushing and the stress intense.

I remember my first time walking into a room of writers waiting to pitch. While most were friendly I couldn’t escape just how anxious many of them were. But then again, that year I didn’t pitch a story.

Outdated Blogging Myths Debunked

I’m on a lot of writer lists, and I read a lot of really questionable advice from well-meaning folks. But recently I read some advice that just about set my hair on fire.

The person giving the questionable advice stated that no one should ever use BlogSpot or WordPress in their blog address. They said that if someone did, it would be almost impossible to break into the highest levels of SEO discoverability. They went on to say the reason for this is that there are millions of Blogger (BlogSpot) and WordPress blogs, so SEO doesn’t consider them professional, no matter how often the site is update.

This advice is so wrong—on so many levels—I almost don’t know where to start.