For me writing is a way to release stress and get the thoughts in my head out. I’ve always been a dreamer. Even as a child I could spin a story in my head. My teachers always would ask where I came up with the stories I’d write for assignments. I’d laugh and say out of my brain. My grandfather wanted me to be a journalist, which is what I wanted to be for a long time. It’s funny how things change. As life starts to take over you make decisions and some are good and others you spend the rest of your life shaking your head at your own stupidity. Well, if I’d gone with my gut instinct writing would’ve been my career from the start. I’ve been writing stories since I was around 13 years old. I was also trained in classical piano and organ. I always dreamed...
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Hello everyone! It’s that time of the week for everyone to whip out those excerpts and have some fun. Today it’s all about your opening scenes-grab that reader and pull them into your story. Post your opening 500 words or less (PG-13) and lets have some fun! As always post your buy links, pre-order dates and WIP. I’m sharing my opening from The Duke’s Frozen Heart, a competed ms, which is being critiqued and waiting to go for edits. One day soon, my baby will go out for queries! Hope had yet to be beaten out of seventeen-year-old Lady Victoria Aldridge. She still believed true love could be found on the dance floors, and within the overheated ballrooms of the ton. She dreamed of rescue by a handsome prince and a happily ever after, like the ending of the fairy-tales she read to her sisters when they were younger. When...
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How are your sales? Do they fluctuate or flounder? One thing that could be happening is you don’t stand out from the thousands of other writers in your genre. I’ve noticed in the romance genre that you have to stand out to be noticed. Here are a couple of ways to make your book stand out and take the lead: 1: Cover – Your cover is very important. If it’s bland and not eye catching most of the time a reader will pass it by. Make sure that this is a part of your book that you pay for the better images and use the more unique fonts. Don’t just use the font you find on Word. Go onto a font site and grab a really cool one. 2. Description – You have to make your description a cliff hanger. Don’t give away too much but do give away...
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dd You may think I’m joking but as I type this post I feel surrounded by blinking lights. I love lightning bugs. They remind me of being a small child and running around catching them in a mason jar and sleeping with them beside the bed. I remember catching one at a time. But this year they seem to have multiplied. Everywhere you look they’re are hundreds blinking. It’s a nice, sultry night in Georgia. The rain has subsided and made way for clear skies. I’m enjoying sitting on my patio working on my current book as my hubby listens to guitar riffs on youtube via his phone. It always inspires me to write when I sit outside in the twilight and watch the sun sink into the horizon. I feel like the sinking sun sometimes. As I work on the finishing touches of my latest work I wonder how...
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Why do people constantly put writers down? Have you ever noticed the reaction that non-readers have when you say you’re a writer? Most of the time avid readers are excited and want to know more. But people that don’t read a lot just look at you like you’ve grown a set up horns. For me it’s hard work to be a writer, an accountant, a children’s minister, a wife and a mom. Not to mention doing housework, finances for our Church and just living. But if it’s your dream and passion you do it through all the madness. A writer’s life is a challenging one, especially if it’s not your full time job. Finding time to put your thoughts on paper is sometimes the real challenge. As for me it’s usually at night when my family is watching television or after they go to bed. A lot of my writing...
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As a writer you have to have some patience. Unfortunately when a story is pressing in on you patience is hard to find. When a story pops into my brain it normally comes in with a vengeance. It presses on my brain until I start writing it. I have to relieve the pressure of getting it started. Usually I get the story outlined before I forget what needs to be said. When I start writing the story I get excited and can’t hardly wait to see how the middle and end unfold. I have to contain myself and not just jump through the story and leave out some important information. Sometimes I tend to want to see how it ends before it even begins. That’s kind of like reading a book and skipping to the end because you just have to know how it ends. Remember if you do an...
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When I first thought maybe I could write a book, I sat down and the ideas and the words poured out of me. I’m not talking about the craft of writing, the info-dumping, the head hopping, the showing not telling. I’m talking about the simple fact of words to page. Putting it down. I knew what I wanted to write about and it all flowed. When I gave it to my wonderful author friend to beta-read, she pointed out some issues and still, I sat down, thought about it and boom, out it flowed again. Of course there’s revision, revision but the element is there, the storyline and the plot. It all worked together. So when it was time for me to write book two, I sat down all happy-like and wrote. Whee-there it came again! Another 94,000 words and I had it done. This time I sent it off...
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One of the hardest things in writing is the book description. Well at least for me. It’s so hard to put into a short paragraph the book you’ve poured your heart into. How do you summarize thousands of words into a short space. Here are a couple of pointers that I go by: 1: Don’t over write the description. This means that you don’t need to overdo it. You don’t need to tell everything. If you go into too much detail you lose the reader before they even get started. 2: Use a lot of descriptive words. You need to make the reader want to read your book. By using descriptive words you can lure them in. 3: Don’t give away too much. I read a description one day that actually told the plot of the book. I realized I didn’t want to read it after reading the description because...
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Have you ever started a book at the end of the story and worked your way forward? Sometimes when I sit down with an idea for a book I start at where I want it to go. As you know from previous posts I like to do an outline for the story line. That way I stay in line. But sometimes it’s the end result of the story that drives me on. I have a book that I’m working on and I’ve worked mostly on the ending. You may be going are you crazy. Well, yes, but that’s beside the point. The ending seems to inspire the beginning. It’s not as hard as it seems. Try it sometimes. You might be amazed. Be sure if you do this method of writing that you keep the first part in the same style as the ending. An outline helps to keep that...
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As a writer our mind usually wonders around, looking for an inspiration or story. I was sitting on my porch this morning looking out at my ivy bed as I call it. When we moved into our home 19 years ago I planted this ivy and over the years it’s taken over three trees and countless attempts at growing purple thrift around the border. The only way to keep it in control is to use the weedeater around the edges and every year or so I burn it out to clear out the limbs and leaves and as my son says the snakes. My writers mind works like that ivy. Sometimes it runs up this tree then stops and runs up another tree clean to the top. Usually it branches out and goes in several different directions. Sometimes it drives me insane But others it’s a good thing because it...
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