My focus this week has been on short stories. Not writing them, but updating and revamping my old short story class to add lots more features and goodies for students. I’ve decided to add two different classes so I can offer one at a lower price and one a higher priced one with more features….
Author: This Writer's Life
February Writing Challenge
Are you ready for a writing challenge? We’re ten days away from February, the shortest month of the year so let’s have a writing challenge here at This Writer’s Life? Each day, I’ll post something that I hope will inspire you to write that day. It could be a prompt or a writing tip or…
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…