Category: Writing Tips

Professional Authors Need H.E.A.R.T.—What It Takes to Make It In The Digital Age of Publishing

Those in writing for the wrong reasons (make a quick buck) abound. Some succeed but they’re rare. Most of us do this writing thing because of LOVE. We love to write, to teach, to share, to tell stories. We are explorers who can venture into the human mind or into galaxies never before imagined. And no matter where we go, there is coffee. That’s a perk *bada bump snare.*

What Brazilian Jui-Jitsu Can Teach Us About Going Pro as AUTHORS

Some of you may know that (for stress relief) I practice Brazilian Jui-Jitsu. Being a teacher and a writer, I see lessons in everything. Strangely, our dojo is not known for BJJ. It’s mainly Shito Ryu Karate and those classes are always packed. There’s a plethora of black belts and they earned it. Many are …

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The Seven Deadly Sins of Prologues

To prologue or not to prologue? That is the question. The problem with the prologue is it has kind of gotten a bad rap over the years, especially with agents. They generally hate them. Why? In my opinion, it is because far too many writers don’t use prologues properly and that, in itself, has created its own problem.

Want More Conflict in Your Novel? Go DM & Balance the Party

We as writers are tasked with creating characters that can easily be mistaken for living breathing people. In order to do this, we have to develop “people” who act in ways consistent with their backgrounds, experiences and beliefs. In other words, we must assign “alignment.”

Description—How to Make Readers Fall In & Never Escape

I believe that good description can make the difference in a caricature verses a “person” or “place” so real we’re sad to say good-bye when the book ends