Last weekend was one of those longtime-coming-but-so-worth-the-wait kind of events. After 18 months of planning, best-selling author Rachel Hauck spoke at Write in the Springs, the annual conference for the Colorado …
What the Lord of the Rings Taught Me about Crafting Tension in My Novel
In our daily lives, we’re all about doing whatever we can to decrease tension. But when it comes to the lives of our fictional characters, we have to be willing …
Using Body Language to Write Stronger Characters
Sometimes I look up from writing a scene at my computer and my family is watching me. One or two of them look concerned. Another one is muffling laughter behind …
When an Author’s Backstory Sparks a Story Idea
At the very first My Book Therapy (MBT) Storycrafters Retreat in 2010, Susie May Warren had the attendees complete a seemingly simple – and insignificant – exercise on page nine of our workbooks.
I kept that workbook, the one with the working title of my manuscript scribbled inside the front cover: Wish You Were Here. Thanks to that weekend and how it changed my life and my writing, Wish You Were Here became a “real book” in 2012.
And I refer back to that seemingly insignificant exercise on page nine time and time again.
Deepening the Spiritual Thread
I love this quote. I found it on Facebook. And it’s truth resonates. Writing a novel, or any story or article, is hard. And a bit scary. It demands our mind, our will, our determination and yes, even our hearts!
All of my creative juices and emotional energy is demanded when I’m writing a novel. Especially in the final stages when I’m polishing and weaving all of the threads and plot lines together.