Editors and agents see lots of manuscript each week. Readers see lots of newly self published books each week. So, how do you make yours stand out? How do you take a plot that everyone’s seen hundreds of times before and put a new spin on it? One easy way to give your readers something…
More Tips for NaNoWriMo
It’s NaNoWriMo and how are you doing? I thought I’d share with you some more of my favorite tips to help you finish the first week. Take Breaks A long, long time ago, I used to be able to sit for hours and write. Now if I do that, my body tells me it was…
A Major Reason for Getting Rejected
No Tuesday guest blogger this week so thought I’d address a topic that’s been on my mind for several months. While I haven’t done as much reading over the summer as I’d hoped, I have read the beginning of many stories and chosen to pass on them. They might have been great stories but they…
Saying Goodbye To My Writing Companion
Tuesday was a day I’d be dreading for a long time. It began not as I’d planned. My tabby cat who was 22 years and 2 months old (yes, you read that right), showed signs that his journey was coming to end. Up to a few weeks ago, you would never have believed he was…
How to Write a Non-Fiction Book in 30 Days
Two posts in one day, but I wanted to let you know that my How to Write a Non-Fiction Book in 30 Days is on sale. It’s a four week self paced course with other great resources like a Kindle publishing guide and self publishing planner. It’s on sale for just $5 because I’m taking…
Writing-One Style Does Not Fit All
Have you ever picked up a writing how to book and followed the tips only to find they don’t work? Before you go blaming the author for giving you worthless advice, think about this… Think about something besides writing that you wanted to learn. Drive a car, learn to ski, play the guitar… Did you…
Monday Motivation-One Small Step
We all want to be published in big name magazines or get three book deals but sometimes the most meaningful victories are those first acceptance e-mails that come from smaller markets. Take it one step at a time and celebrate each byline. Enjoy the journey known as becoming a writer.
Friday Ramblings From An Author-The To Do List
Just when I thought I had my January to do list all worked out, I realized I need to be more organized. I’ve been working on the new format for the short story class and realized I had files here and files there and pulling everything together was making it seem like I was going…
Five Exercises for Creating Characters Your Reader Will Love
My plot’s going nowhere. I can’t seem to get past chapter three. Sound familiar? Think it’s a plotting problem? Well, it might be but most of the time it’s a character problem. You’ve spent weeks working on your plot but haven’t given any thought to the type of person or persons who will live your…
Publishing Trends for 2021
Want to get published in 2021? I really do wish I had all the answers for you but this post is based on what I’m seeing in articles, trends and by checking out various publishing platforms. For the first time, lots of things seem up in the air right now. However, here’s a brief run…
Monday Motivation-It’s Possible
Does writing a book or getting published seem impossible to you? As you sit down to write this week, keep these words by Nelson Mandala in mind.
Friday Ramblings From An Author-First One of 2021
How did you first week of 2021 turn out? I hope you got lots of writing done…even got an acceptance letter or call about a story. This week seemed strange because for the first time in 12 years, I’m not teaching a class. I did however, begin work on the first class I’ll be uploading…
Biggest Writing Hurdle
If I asked you what you feel is the biggest hurdle to getting a book written what would be your answer? If you would have asked me that about ten years ago, I would have quickly responded, lack of a good plot, flat characters, etc. However, after tutoring, teaching and coaching, here’s the answer Lack…
January Writing Prompts
It’s the first Wednesday of the month so that means it’s time for our new writing prompt format. Each first Wednesday, I’ll post a set of random prompts and ideas that you can use throughout the month to either, write a short story, improve one aspect of your writing or even use it to spark…
Welcome to the New Site
Happy New Year to you all. This Writer’s Life site has now gone from WordPress.com over to WordPress.org and I hope all followers and subscribers will receive this post. If someone could let me know you are, that would be great. You can send me an e-mail at writerslifeblog@gmail.com I’m going to use this post…