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      Category : The Writing Craft

      • January 27, 2014

        The Amazingly Easy Short Cut Guide To Becoming A Great Writer (Tongue-In-Cheek Advice for The Lazy)

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        BY GUEST AUTHOR KATHARINE GRUBB

        Some are born great writers, some aspire to being a great writer and some have writerly
        greatness thrust upon them. Then, sometimes, neither of those three options apply to us and we have to bushwhack our own path to greatness.

        Is it just me, or does that sound like a lot of work?

        I’d like to suggest that our writerly ambitions can be accomplished with little or no effort. In fact, I have a list of ten things you can do (or not do) to accomplish this goal. (If accomplishing goals is your thing.) I would have come up with eleven, but I got tired.

        1. Don’t Write. Your day is busy enough. In fact, spend your down time doing things like hurling birds into piles of thieving pigs. Tell yourself that this is brain work! Your writing future is dependent on whether or not you see Downton Abbey! Every time you have a nagging thought that tells, you that maybe you should do Nanowrimo or something like that, just watch an episode of Hoarders until the feeling goes away. Smugness, with lack of physical activity, can be just as comforting as that pesky sense of accomplishment that comes with dedication and commitment. Trust me.

        2. Don’t read. This is obvious. Since really there aren’t any new plots, there isn’t any point in reading at all. If you need to know something, don’t go any deeper than a search on Wikipedia. If you want a story to entertain you, you’ve got Netflix, right? Besides fiction is made up stories, which are basically lies. Just don’t bother. In fact, if you are reading this blog, stop right now and turn on Pandora, the Shakira station.

        3. Hang Out With Stupid People. This should be easy. If you want to avoid greatness, then spend a lot of time with those who are content to stay where they

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      • January 13, 2014

        A Fabulous Beast is Born

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         A GUEST POST BY NOVELIST GINGER GARRETT

         

        One of my earliest memories is of sitting in a darkened cinema and wailing, “But I don’t want to see his head explode, Mommy!” My parents loved scary movies and didn’t want to pay a sitter. I was doomed.

        Nightmarish creatures haunted my childhood dreams. In an effort to tame the monsters, I invited them to tea parties. I’d lower the blinds in my room, close the curtains and lock the door. Then, pretending it was midnight, (so both Dracula and the Wolfman could make it) I’d host elaborate festivities.
        I grew to love my monsters. After all, it was the monsters in the movies that made people pull together and rise above their petty agendas. (Bloodlust is a powerful organizational tool.) It was monsters that made us human.

        So while I was mentoring middle schoolers and waiting for a new book idea, I read a book on the psychology of fear and monsters. I was surprised to learn that scholars consider Aristotle to be the father of Monsterology. (Or, as my PhD scientist friend, Jodi, says, “Cryptozoology.” Then she rolls her eyes and changes the subject.)

        But Aristotle was also considered to be a major influence on Christian theology. Why was such a brilliant man mixed up with monsters? Unfortunately, Aristotle’s monster hunting days were cut short…he died under mysterious conditions. Then all his books were destroyed. (The writings we have of Aristotle today are mostly his lecture notes.) What happened to him? What secrets about monsters did he take to his grave? I clipped a picture from the book of an ancient, legendary monster and slipped it into a box for safekeeping.

        Unsure what to do with this mystery, I got on with life. I like to read fitness magazines, especially if I’m avoiding exercise. One day I read about a respected triathlete, who is disabled. She described picking off

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      • January 7, 2014

        A Workshop on Getting Published

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        BY CHIP MACGREGOR

         

        A new writing conference is fast approaching — and you’re invited.

        On Saturday, February 15, I will be speaking at the Dallas Writers’ University. It’s a one-day event, with a rather intensive agenda:

        • I’ll speak on “developing a book proposal that sells,” and the focus will be on giving practical, hands-on help to writers who want to create a proposal that will get noticed.
        • I’ll also be speaking on “creating your long-term publishing strategy,” with an emphasis on traditional publishing, niche publishing, self-publishing, and alternative strategies for writers to make a living.
        • Michelle Borquez, bestselling author and entrepreneur, will explore “building a platform around your concept.”
        • There will be a Q&A time, and everybody there will have a face to face meeting with me sometime during the day.
        • Finally, Michelle and I will be talking about the secret to success in contemporary publishing.

        I’m really looking forward to this opportunity. I’ve largely taken time away from conferences the past couple years, but I love talking to authors about proposals and strategy. And you’re invited. Again, every participant gets face time with me, where we’ll be reviewing proposals and talking about next steps in a one-on-one setting. That means our space is limited to just 30 people.

        Here’s the thing . . . there are a hundred conferences you can go to in order to get some basic information on writing. But if you really want to join a small group and find out how to create a book that will sell, make some money, and gain entry into the world of publishing by talking to some experienced people in the industry, I hope you’ll consider joining us. I don’t do many conferences anymore (and rarely do a writing conference), so I’m excited to be asked to be part of this one.

        The event is going to be in the Dallas area, at a church in White

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      • November 22, 2013

        FINDING YOUR VOICE

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        GUEST WRITER  ANE MULLIGAN

        President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, she’s worn many different ones: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that’s a fancy name for a lobbyist), business manager, drama director and writer. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction (try saying that three times fast). A three-time Genesis finalist, Ane is a published playwright and columnist. She resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband and two very large dogs, and has just returned from the ACFW conference.

        Finding Your Voice

        Fiction writers are told to find their voice. Well, what is it, and for that matter, how do you find it?

        I mastered the mechanics of good writing by learning and following the guidelines or … stay with me here … the rules. It’s kind of like staying between the lines in a coloring book before taking on a blank sheet of art paper. Then, I began to understand when and how to break those rules to turn my manuscript into a symphony of words.

        About that same time, I started a new series, and when I sent my critique partners the first chapter, they told me I’d found my voice. Cool. I didn’t know I’d lost it. I mean, I didn’t have laryngitis or even a sore throat.

        Okay, I’m being silly and probably not very funny, so you can stop rolling your eyes. In truth, I’d been working on voice. I read Les Edgerton’s book Finding Your Voice. I highly recommend it if you’re still looking for yours.

        In Edgerton’s book, he said go back and look at letters you’d written when you were young or at least before you began to write. There was your voice.

        As I thought about that, I remembered how our friends always

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      • November 21, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: Why I hate NaNoWriMo

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        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        (I’m taking a break from all-things-marketing for the rest of 2013…so if you’re here for posts on platforms and promotions, stay tuned…they’ll come with the new year).

        It never fails. Each November 1, my Facebook news feed is full of bright-eyed, hopeful, excited writers, eager to embark on their quest to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The camaraderie is awesome. The energy, infectious. And each year there is a teeny tiny part of me that wonders if I sign up, too.

        Then, week one ends. The energy, though still pulsing, is a tad weaker. The number of people talking about their goals, less frequent. Then comes the first admittance of failure:

        “Stuff came up with the family…can’t finish NaNo this year. :(”

        Not a big deal. Those still in the trenches assure that person that there was nothing they could have done to change their situation and that NEXT YEAR it will be different.

        But then week two hits. And week three. And you get to the 21st of the month (the day I’m writing this post), and it’s as if NaNoWriMo isn’t even taking place. Of my thirty-plus Facebook friends who had advertised their participatin in NaNo, a small handful remain. And even then, their updates are sparse, full of stress. Full of doubt. They’ve been beaten down and they don’t know how they’ll pull through.

        This is why I hate NaNoWriMo. It sets writers up to fail.

        As if writers need yet another reason to question their craft. To doubt whether they’re cut out for

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      • October 1, 2013

        What do I need to know about memoir?

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        I’ve had several people ask me about memoir lately. It’s been a growth category lately in publishing, and that means we’re going to see more memoir proposals from writers. In reviewing what we’ve been seeing, could I offer three general tips to keep in mind about the genre?

        First,understand the difference between memoir and autobiography and self-help or personal story. An autobiography is simply the review of one’s life — the events the happened, in order, covering the who, where, when, and what. In other words, an autobiography is history. A memoir, on the other hand, isn’t bound by those restrictions at all. The focus is on remembered events of the author, so it can cover the big days, skip most of the other days, and focus on lessons and themes and memories. Sometimes an author will simply tell his or her personal story, in order to create a book that attempts to help readers live more successfully in a particular area (finances, health, parenting, spirituality, etc). That’s not a memoir, but a self-help book using the author’s personal story as a backdrop on which to hang the lessons. Autobiography is out. Personal stories, for the most part, are out. Memoir is in.

        Second, don’t assume because something interesting happened to you, it will be of interest to others. I often get people sending me a fascinating personal story — “THIS happened to me, and everybody tells me I should write a book about it!” My response is usually: “yaaaaaawn.” Yes, interesting things still happen. Yes, I think people can change. Yes, I believe God is alive and doing great things. Yes, miracles can occur. And yes, lives get changed in incredible ways, and the re-telling of that can be valuable (just like we re-tell our personal stories to our kids, and just like the ancient tradition of having people share testimonies in church) .But the fact that

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      • September 30, 2013

        Finding Your Voice (a guest blog)

        by

        Fiction writers are told to find their voice. Well, what is it, and for that matter, how do you find it?

        I mastered the mechanics of good writing by learning and following the guidelines or … stay with me here … the rules. It’s kind of like staying between the lines in a coloring book before taking on a blank sheet of art paper. Then, I began to understand when and how to break those rules to turn my manuscript into a symphony of words.

        About that same time, I started a new series, and when I sent my critique partners the first chapter, they told me I’d found my voice. Cool. I didn’t know I’d lost it. I mean, I didn’t have laryngitis or even a sore throat.

        Okay, I’m being silly and probably not very funny, so you can stop rolling your eyes. In truth, I’d been working on voice. I read Les Edgerton’s book Finding Your Voice. I highly recommend it if you’re still looking for yours.

        In Edgerton’s book, he said go back and look at letters you’d written when you were young or at least before you began to write. There was your voice.

        As I thought about that, I remembered how our friends always told me they loved my Christmas letters. Mine were the ones they actually read and looked forward to. If I was late with it I received a few “Where is it?” emails. Instead of a travelogue or a report on the kiddos’ doings, I made up stories about the major events of the past year, poking fun at us and liberally adding embellishments.

        I pulled out those past Christmas letters and studied them. I noticed the cadence, the style, and the sound of them. That’s what I wanted in my fiction. I then tried a new game of “Name that Author.”

        First, I went to a multi-author blog—it doesn’t

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      • September 19, 2013

        More Words of Wisdom from Joyce Magnin

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        BY GUEST WRITER  JOYCE MAGNIN

        Below is the second half of the text from a speech given by the well known novelist Joyce Magnin. Part I ran on September 19th.

         

        THE POWER OF WORDS:  Part II

        I soon became enamored with the words of Emily Dickinson and to this day I still am often awestruck with the power she could convey in so few well-chosen words. Her words, although I most of the time didn’t get what she was saying, pierced me and helped me to transcend my life. I learned to dwell in Possibility, as she called it and to concern myself with Circumference.

        Circumference, a powerful word she used often, a double metaphor that is both an extension, think of the circumference of the earth and a limit, think of the sand on the shoreline.

        Emily Dickinson used the word to contain some things that transcended space and time like ecstasy, and grief and I believe helped her understand God, and to touch the sublime.

        Her words had the power to stun me, amuse me, and capture a feeling I couldn’t quite explain. Emily taught me that

        Hope is the thing with feathers
        That perches in the soul,
        And sings the tune without the words,
        And never stops at all,

        And sweetest in the gale is heard;
        And sore must be the storm
        That could abash the little bird
        That kept so many warm.

        I’ve heard it in the chillest land
        And on the strangest sea;
        Yet, never, in extremity,
        It asked a crumb of me.

        Hope. Emily Dickinson’s words, written long before I was born instructed me and healed me. This is the power of words.

        And then I began to write, learning the difference between the spoken and the written word, I chose the written word.

        Spoken words for me were hurtful most of the time, silly and uncertain coming from mouths that I

        couldn’t

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      • September 18, 2013

        THE POWER OF WORDS

        by

        BY GUEST WRITER  JOYCE MAGNIN

        Below is the text from a speech given by the well known novelist Joyce Magnin.

        THE POWER OF WORDS: Part I

        As I thought about this topic my natural inclination was to go back through my notes or talks and workshops and rehash some things that I have already taught, I thought about looking for particularly snappy passages from literature, to find wisdom in someone else’s words, wisdom and ideas that I believed as well. But as I did this I became more and more uneasy and threw out my new notes, tore pages off my yellow legal pad like they were Autumn leaves and let them rest on the floor until I had so many discarded pages I almost felt I couldn’t do this.

        But then in a flash I decided to not tell you about the power of words in the same old way.

        We all know this. We all know that words can heal or harm or instruct or entertain and make us laugh. No one will dispute that, and I didn’t think it would be telling you anything you didn’t already know.

        So in keeping with what we began last night as I shared my personal writing journey and some thoughts on what it means to become a writer I thought it more appropriate to share with you what the power of words in my life

        . . .  was . . .  is  . . . and will be because as  writers we all understand that the one common aim of our writings is to say something that will resonate with others, that our stories will matter in what Carl Jung called the collective consciousness, or the Greater Narrative. That we have something to say.

        And I would suggest that this is true not just for the writer but is apropos for all our gifts. Don’t we all want to

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      • September 11, 2013

        Maegan Beaumont on her novel, Carved in Darkness

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        GUEST WRITER MAEGAN BEAUMONT is the author of CARVED IN DARKNESS, the first book in the Sabrina Vaughn series (Available through Midnight Ink, spring 2013). A native Phoenician, Maegan’s stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement, and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn’t busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.

         

        My writing career did not start out well. When I was 7, I entered a young authors’ contest through my 2nd grade class. I lost. When I was 12, I turned in a short story as a class room assignment. Instead of the A I was hoping for, I earned weekly sessions with the school psychologist. True story. When I was 15 I entered a short story contest held by Seventeen Magazine. I lost that one too… bat at least no one tried to stick me in therapy.

        These three events taught me a few things:

        1. 1) I can’t write.
        2. 2) What I write scares people.
        3. 3) The way I see the world isn’t normal.
        4. 4) Failure sucks.

        As I got older, I learned there was nothing in this world I hated and feared more than failure. It became a living, breathing thing that I actively avoided, like that mean kid in school who pushed you in the mud on picture day and “borrowed” your milk money.

        Failure.

        I never took a creative writing class in high school. I never allowed my friends and family to read what I wrote (for fear of failure… and also a 72-hour bed hold at the county annex).  I never developed what I can now

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