Romance is one of the largest selling genres of all time. Yet, it often gets overlooked or seen as substandard or an easy genre to write in. This way of thinking isn’t only damaging, but it’s simply untrue. As I’ve studied the art of writing a great romance, I’ve learned some great tips for making your book stand out, and making your readers hold their breath as they wait for the romance to unfold on your page. These tips can also be helpful to authors wishing to add a romantic subplot to any other genre they write.

1. Make sure your plot sets up enough conflict.

Conflict is what drives your plot forward. This is true for every genre, and romance is no exception. If there isn’t enough conflict tearing your two love interests apart, your story can end up flat. Of course, there can be external conflict in other parts of your story, but a romance novel has the romance as the focus of the plot. If there is no internal conflict between the two characters, you end up with a series of scenes where your couple is spending time together because they like each other, and they have growing feelings for each other, but nothing interesting happens. This is a sure way to bore your readers.

2. Get your couple on the page together.

I often will read a romance where the two main characters are off doing their own things, and not spending enough of the book together. A romance can’t grow between your characters if they’re not interacting with each other. If you’re writing a romance novel, I suggest your couple spends around 80% of the book on the same page, building a relationship. Now, if you’ve set up enough conflict between your characters, they’re not going to want to spend time together. You’re going to have to set up something in your plot that forces your characters to be in the same place at the same time. Whether they are assigned to work together on a project at the office, are forced into a fake relationship, or are stranded in a cabin in the woods, if you can come up with a scenario that puts your characters together against their will, you will have the opportunity for love to grow.

3. Build an emotional connection between your characters.

Not only do your characters need to spend time together, but they must be building an emotional connection along the way. This can be done with small acts of kindness, and as they have conversations and learn to respect each other. Your characters will show that connection as they allow themselves to become vulnerable with each other. Be sure to show the progression of the relationship as the novel unfolds. They will need to be closed off to each other at first, talking only about surface-level things. As the story moves along, they need to become more open and vulnerable, sharing more personal things with each other. By the end of the book, they should be talking about things with the love interest that they don’t talk about with anyone else. This will show the progression of their emotional connection.

4. Don’t forget the dance.

A great romance takes two steps forward and one step back throughout the entire novel. This dance will keep your readers on their toes just waiting for your couple to finally admit to themselves and each other their true feelings. As you write your romance, don’t forget the backward steps. This makes the forward movement much more meaningful. These backward steps will happen because of whatever conflict you’ve set up between your characters. Maybe your characters are up for the same promotion, and this makes them instant enemies. They can start to connect, but something reminds her that he’s just there to steal her promotion, which makes her not trust him, and she pulls back emotionally. This backward movement is integral to the dance of a romance.

5. Show their attraction through physical intimacy.

As your couple begins to have feelings for each other, they will show this through small acts of intimacy. Be sure to show this progress, as you also show their emotional intimacy growing. Physical intimacy can start with a touch to the shoulder, or arm. This physical touch needs to spark feelings of attraction in your characters. As they become more emotionally connected, their physical intimacy will also increase. Be sure to increase the emotional reaction that your characters have to these moments as well.

6. Make your black moment matter. 

The black moment is when your characters decide to give up on the relationship. Be sure this happens for a good reason. Don’t make the black moment all about a misunderstanding, or something else frivolous. This needs to be something your characters care about. The black moment can happen because one character finds out the other lied to them about something, or because they have opposing viewpoints on a political matter, or simply because one of them is terrified of being hurt again in a relationship. Whatever the reason, make it a strong enough reason so your readers see the great dilemma that your characters are going through.

7. Don’t make your climax too short.

During your black moment, your characters will have to decide that love is more important than anything else. This brings us to the climax of the book where your characters finally admit their love. This is what your readers have waited the entire book for, so don’t rush it. Let it be everything your readers are hoping for. The climax needs to be full of depth and emotion. Your characters will finally show their character growth and admit that love conquers all.

As you craft your romance novel, these seven tips will help you write a story that will grab hold of your readers and not let them go.

About Victorine Lieske

Victorine self-published her first book, Not What She Seems, in April of 2010. In March of 2011, Not What She Seems began its 6-week run on The New York Times best-selling eBook list. By May 2011 she had sold over 100,000 copies. Victorine’s first romantic comedy novel hit the USA Today Bestselling books list in January 2015. When she’s not writing, she’s watching swoony Korean Dramas, or making something with her extensive yarn collection.

Website: https://victorinelieske.com/

***

 📌 The Scoop about LAST week on
Apex’s Strategy and Mastermind

The week of March 13, Apexers got to:

• Learn how to crush it with Fund Your Book with Kickstarter as Russell Noheltyr, USA Today bestselling author, publisher, speaker, co-host of the Kickstart Your Book Sales podcast, and co-founder of the Writer MBA training academy, gave us not only the concepts of how but also the behind the curtain to the real-world nitty-gritty.
• Deep dive into Imposter Syndrome and Mental Health for Authors with Jodi L. Milner and learn how to embrace our square peg in a round hole uniqueness along with tips to give us a mental and emotional boost..
• Be guided through The Importance of Market Research with CJ Anaya along with the how-to’s and examples.

STRATEGY 3/13/2023 – Russell Noheltyr highlights

What are the main platforms for crowdfunding and when should you use what:

• Kickstarter – if you want the biggest audience possible and you have a specific creative project
• Indiegogo – if you have a charity or consumer tech product
• GoFundMe – if you need to raise money through personal fundraising

Russell focused on Kickstarter as being the go-to for creatives and talked about the elements needed to create a campaign that people want to back.

What to focus on:

• Who are you?
• What is your product?
• Where can they pick it up?
• When should they pledge?
• How does it help their lives?

And the most important part? The Why. You need to provide the answers to:

• Why should I care?
• Why should I give vou my money?
• Why should this project exist?
• Why should I part with my hard earned money?

Should you have a campaign video on your Kickstarter?

Russell said it not necessary. There’s been many successful campaigns without a video: however, statistically 69% of successful campaigns have a video; 64% of unsuccessful campaigns do NOT have a video.

If you do have a video, remember campaign text enhances and expands on the video…as do images. People want to see you. Smile and be enthusiastic. If you’re not excited about your product, nobody else will be. And keep the video under 2:30 minutes.

A resource: HitFilm Express. This is a free video editing and visual effects software to help you create awesome content.

The Three Phases of a Campaign Video:

1. The Introduction (:10-:15) – A simple 1-2 sentence introduction saying hello, and saying the name of your product.
2. The Product Demonstration (:30-1:00) – Images, voice-over, and real world solutions that your product solves. Your fans need to know WHY this project should come to life.
3. The “Plea” (:30-:1:00) – You and your team, back on screen, talking about the product’s inception, road to market, and why you are looking for money. Make sure to mention stretch goals, and plead your case…but don’t beg.

Campaign Images

Russell told us successful campaigns have 11 or more images. If you have a comic book, photography, or other visual heavy project, definitely add more. And start with the boldest, most eye-catching image first.

Make sure each image drives the product forward by either showing your product solving a problem OR building your audience’s connection to your brand. Do you know what your brand is? For authors, this ties into who will be reading and buying our books.

Places to get stock images: Depositphotos, 123rf.com, Covervault, Psdcovers,

The TEXT of Your Campaign

It is imperative that you keep your message clear. Most campaign fail because their message is muddled and hard to understand. Backers need a clear message or they will be scrolling by.

How to do this?

• You can ask questions to frame your campaign.
• Beta-test your message for clarity. Test it with people who haven’t heard your product pitch before. Ask them questions to make sure they understand.
• Make sure the look of the text is easy to read with appropriate white-space and no paragraph-mountains of text. Break it up.

It’s all about getting somebody to back your project.

Backer Rewards

• Don’t leave backers wondering what they receive with a pledge. Have your rewards clearly defined.
• List every reward a backer will receive in each pledge tier description. With most projects, all previous tiers are included when a backer pledges to a higher reward.
• Your campaign text and video should drive people to back your project, the reward section is simply informative. Don’t get fancy with it.
• How the rewards section drives sales is to make sure each reward tier is distinct, targeting a specific type of buyer, and helping to upsell backers into higher tiers.

The $1 Pledge:

This is a tripwire pledge as it’s harder to get someone to go from $0 to $1 than it is to have them go from $1 to $20. They are now officially buying from you.

• Entice them with something fun above just props. Make it interesting for them to pledge, but also cheap for you to make. Example: Digital cutout of a paper desk toy.

The $10 pledge:

The digital pledge.

• Somebody that wants to see your work, but either doesn’t have the money for a physical copy, or is international.
• This is a very popular international pledge as there is no shipping.

The $25 pledge:

The most common pledge.

• This is the pledge level everything else is based around. It is your core product and you want to make this pledge level as enticing as possible.

The $50 Pledge:

The “enthusiastic backer” pledge.

• People that really like your work will want to show it by backing more.

Giving these people a special thanks in books, or in disc jackets allows enthusiastic buyers to be immortalized in the product forever. Swag is also a good motivator here. Think T-shirts, plushes, and ways for your supporters to show their love for your product.

The $75-$100 Pledge:

The “devoted fan” pledge.

• People that LOVE your work so much that they want special editions, sketch cards, commissions, and other goodies.
• You can offer limited edition commentary for movies, or special numbered cds, or other tangible things that the backer can point to and say “this is special”

Higher Pledges – $100-$1000:

The customized pledge.

• These are even more devoted fans, or people that really love your product. Sometimes consumer tech STARTS at this tier b/c of the product cost. Most products do not.
• Each of these rewards needs to feel custom and worthwhile. I often add these during the campaign for people that ask about it.
• Being drawn into a book, or written into a novel, or animated into a movie, or brought on a movie set are all perks common at this level.

Remember to upsell – Every pledge should be about entice somebody to go to the next level pledge. I like to

The Seven Areas all Crowdfunding Budgets Must Have

1. Project Creation – This is only the amount it costs to get your project from inception to completion.

Russell also went over a little about taxes and company formation as well. He has a course Kickstarter Accelerator. You can go to his site and find out more.

He also went over lightly about Taxes and Company Formation- basic information as he isn’t an accountant or a lawyer.

• If you don’t use your raised funds in the same calendar year, you WILL owe taxes, even if you use it the following year.
• You should consider forming an LLC or Corporation with the funds you receive to limit liability of your personal assets.
• It costs money to file for a company initially, and then it costs money every year to maintain it.
• Consult and attorney and accountant for more information. This is not financial or legal advice.
• Stock you have at the end of the year is not tax deductible. This is called carry over inventory and it sucks.

For more information on Russell visit www.writermba.com or www.russellnohelty.com

MASTERMIND 3/13/23 – Jodi L. Milner highlights

Imposter syndrome, something that most of us have experienced at least sometimes in our lives. Jody defined Imposter Syndrome as ‘a feeling of discomfort, second-guessing, and anxiety when among those who share the same interest or profession.’

It shows up as chronic feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, and fraudulence despite objective success. And, an irrational fear that limits a person’s ability to feel they deserve what they earned, or feel they belong.

What is not Imposter but is often attributed to it:

• Temporary and infrequent feelings of self-doubt
• Not enjoying the work because it’s hard.
• Taking a realistic and pragmatic view of your odds of success.

Where does Imposter Syndrome come from?

It can be a result of a heightened personal attribute such as perfectionism or a severe rejection response. This can be from having a low support and/or high conflict environment with your upbringing. It is also enhanced by our culture’s norms to succeed at any cost.

Precursors that can lead Imposter Syndrome include:

• Actions taken to avoid any type of rejection.
• An inability to accept deserved praise.
• Saying sorry for anything and everything when you’ve done nothing wrong.
• Actively linking self-worth to how your success compares to other people’s success.

There are several types of Imposter Syndrome. Do you see yourself in any of these?

The perfectionist – Perfectionists are never satisfied and always feel that their work could be better. Rather than focus on their strengths, they tend to fixate on any flaws or mistakes. This often leads to a great deal of self-pressure and high amounts of anxiety.

Perfectionist writers will write, edit, and rewrite in a vicious cycle but never feel they are getting closer to submit to contests, approach agents, or take the next steps toward self-publishing.

The superhero – They are overcompensators. Because Superhero writers feel inadequate, they feel compelled to push themselves to work as hard as possible. They are at a huge risk for total burnout which can be a precursor to depression, chronic fatigue, and feeling trapped in work that isn’t enjoyable anymore. They tend to volunteer and take on far more optional projects than they should. They also face challenges that arise from neglecting physical and mental health. Yes, they do get things

The expert – These individuals are always trying to learn more and are never satisfied with their level of understanding. Even though they are often highly skilled, they underrate their own expertise.

Because of this Expert writers feel compelled to take classes and conferences hoping that the next one will have exactly what they need to write their project the “right way.” They often say they will start their big dream writing project after they finish one more class or after one more conference, but then when the time comes, they feel paralyzed and can’t. They lack confidence to take the plunge.

The natural genius – These individuals set excessively lofty goals for themselves, and then feel crushed when they don’t succeed on their first try.

For most writers, the best learning comes from having flaws pointed out and learn from the mistakes. For a natural genius, mistakes are a moral failing. Having them pointed out brings with it severe anxiety and feelings of rejection which are hard, if not impossible to overcome.

The soloist – These people tend to be very individualistic and prefer to work alone. Self-worth often stems from their productivity, so they often reject offers of assistance. They tend to see asking for help as a sign of weakness or incompetence.

While writing itself is a solo sport, every other part of the craft is certainly not. Successful writers need a team of experienced people on their side to help them reach their goals. Writers who refuse to ask for help (or an editor) will eventually get stuck in a place where they don’t have dependable resources to help them make progress. If they struggle to ask for help, this is often the point where they quit.

How to combat the Imposter syndrome monster?

• Question yourself – Every time you have a negative thought about your abilities or wonder if you’re qualified for a job, pause and ask yourself: Is the thought actually (truly) accurate? Is this emotional experience real or am I responding based on other outside variables? Does this thought help or hinder me?
• Reframe your thinking – It helps to be mindful of antecedents, beliefs, and emotions. You can use these categories to put your thoughts in perspective. For example, you might receive a raise, so you feel distress or guilt because you believe you didn’t deserve it. Go back and examine why you have this belief and examine if it’s valid.
• Embrace success – If you have imposter syndrome, it can be tempting to invalidate even the smallest win. Resist that urge by listing every success and allowing them to resonate emotionally. Over time, this practice will give you a realistic picture of your accomplishments and help affirm your self-worth.
• Talk it out – Whether it’s a mentor, friend, or therapist, talk to someone else about how you’re feeling. Getting an outside perspective can shake irrational beliefs and ground you in reality.
• Show self-compassion – Your need for acceptance can make you invisible. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all your glory.

Jody also gave us a link for the “IDRLabs Imposter Syndrome” and No email is required

https://www.idrlabs.com/3-minute-impostor-syndrome/test.php10

To connect with Jodi:

JodiLMilner.com

Facebook Page: @JodiLMilnerAuthor

Facebook Group: JodisMagicalMayhem

Instagram: @Jodi. L.Milner

Twitter: @JodiLMilner

MASTERMIND 3/18/23 3/18/23 – CJ Anaya highlights

If you want to learn HOW to do Marketing research in addition to why – this replay is a MUST watch!

CJ opened the presentation with the importance of knowing if your project is a passion project or if you are writing to the market as these have different goals.

Passion Project is writing according to mood. You are not not necessarily worried about the story being something commercial or marketable. You have a story to tell, and you want to tell it.

Writing to the Market – things you need to know

• What is selling? Categories and subniches
• Why are these books selling? What makes them popular and who is your audience?
• What are the audience expectations? Types of characters, plots, conflicts, endings?

Or in other words, are you

• Producing books you love for funsies
• Producing books you love for funsies and sales OR
• Producing books for sales

It’s important to know what your goal is so you know what you need to do to work on achieving it with minimal frustration. For example, CJ has seen quite a few clients asking for help with marketing when they believe their ads aren’t working. Many times the problem is they either didn’t know who they were marketing to, or they wrote within a genre that was so niche there wasn’t a huge market for it. Watch the replay for all the solid examples she gave.

Knowing how to do your Marketing research works for those just starting out, new ideas, works in progress, and yes, finished books.

Category Research with a Completed Book

1. Create a list of what your book is about.Using research tools such as BKLNK.COM or Nerdybookirl.com can help you determine what categories that books like yours are using.CJ uses one of her books as an example on What is my book about?
   • An evil fae queen wants to kill lesser fae. A young heroine who thinks she’s human and doesn’t know she’s fae royalty.
   • She must embrace who she is and save the Fae and Human Realms (all 9 realms too)
2. Create a list of the books like your book.NEXT, what books are like CJ’s?
   • Song of the Fae: Tricia O’Malley (Independently published) – B09P57L94
   • Iron Fae Series: Julie Kagawa (traditionally published) -B0105VBJ08
3. Use research tools like BKLNK.com or Nerdybookgirl.com to determine what categories books like yours are using.
   • CJ’s book seems to be a fantasy romance and epic fantasy which is a growing genre with space for CJ.
4. Check the Book Sales of the first and last book in the best seller list. Ideal is over 1000 but under 30,000. Too low creates too much competition. Too high indicates not enough demand.
   • Yes, we do this research on Amazon even though your book may be distributed widely. What we’ve found is that trends on Amazon serve as a pretty decent reflection of trends in the industry in general. What we learn here can be applied anywhere.

Catagory Research in the Planning Phase

1. Create a list of types of books you are interested in – CJ’s Interest: Romance. Fantasy. Strong females. Fae. Evil Royalty. (Love the idea of a fated mate bond of some sort) Teen and Young Adult. Teen saves the world.
2. Use tools like Publisher Rocket, KDSpy, and K-lytics to determines areas of rising popularity.
3. Map where YOUR interest and the rising popularity overlap (this is how we have our cake and eat it too)
4. Look for books similar to yours
5. Check the Book Sales of the first and last book in the best seller list. Ideal is over 1000 but under 30,000. Too low creates too much competition. Too high indicates not enough demand.

We had a live demonstration. CJ then took us to BKLNK (Book Link at BkLNK.com) and the Amazon Best Seller lists (Go to Amazon. Find the link toward the top for Best sellers. Drill down on the left hand side). Watch the replay for the details.

Additional info:

BKLNK helps with Universal Book Links (UBLs), which direct people to vour book page on their countrv’s Zone country store.

Best Sellers, Kindle Store, Kindle ebooks, then your main category and then niche down from there.

Best Seller Rank tells vou something about how many books a day are selling. If you want to break this list you have to be selling at least 113 books a day.

https://kindlepreneur.com/amazon-kdo-sales-rank-calculator/ – Sales rank calculator

• Is there a K-lytics report on this subniche!

What do you research now that you’ve chosen potential categories and subniches or identified the category and subniche your book(s) is in?

• Description of target audience demographic: age, gender, occupation, interests
• Target audience expectations Tropes, Themes, Characters, Conflicts identified within your sub niche Reviews from your target audience
• Three positive things consistently mentioned in reviews Three negative things consistently mentioned in reviews
• Types of Series Heat level, Violence level, Profanity level, Drinking & Substance Abuse, Titles, Subtitles, Series Titles Types of covers Book Descriptions (first person, third person) Metadata: Keyword & Category for KDP Upload Series Branding
• Newsletters
• Pen Name
• Author pic
• Author bio

To contact CJ for information or to inquire about being a client for your marketing her email is: email@authorcianava.com

CJ works frequently with Jana and her email is: janasbrownwrites@gmail.com

March Microfiction Madness

Semi-Finalists
3rd Round Prompt
3rdTraining Workshop

• Joshua Dyer and the other judges have gone through all the entries and have announced who will continue on to Round 3 – the Semi-finals. Thank you Jen Bair, Jan Nerenberg, Danuta Raine, Mike Jack Stoumbos, and Joshua Dyer!
• The prompt for Round 3, posted earlier on the Apex-writers Facebook group, is up and our contestants have until midnight ET / 10 pm MT today, March 20, 2023 to email it before the deadline.
•  Additionally, one of the opportunities from the writing tournament is to grow and learn which means we are being treated with solid info with writing and submission training written workshops. The 3rd workshop article is included! STRONGLY RECOMMEND READING THE WORKSHOPS! And good luck semi-finalists!
  

ROUND 2 IS COMPLETE AND THE SEMI-FINALISTS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED!

We have a lot of talented writers here in Apex. Congratulations to the following writers (in no particular order) who made the Semi-finals!

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Michael Wine – Scott Sands – Rob Johnson – Philip Janowski
V. R. Lassman – Jade Wildy – Dina Scott – J. Larson
Brandon Clark – Maggie England – Jennifer McKinney – Logan Kearsley
Jenna Livingston – Megan Higgins – Ruth Nickle – Tammy Burke
Crystal Bechler – Eric Stallsworth – Blake Wallace – Jan Villaverde

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Competition was tough. If you didn’t make it in this tournament, know that it’s not a reflection on you as a writer. The judges and Apex Writers thank you all for being a part of our inaugural Triple M tournament.
The training and upcoming prompts are yours for the taking as well. Create more stories or story seeds for your future works. We have more events planned, so keep learning. Press forward. You’ve already proven you’re capable of more than you imagined.

Join us in wishing the remaining writers good luck. Twenty contestants will compete for one of only twelve spots in the finals.

#MarchMicrofictionMadness

March Microfiction Madness: Third Round!

SEMI-FINAL PROMPT (Round #3):

Semi-final genre: gaslamp fantasy. Think historical fantasy that takes place between 1840 and 1910. It tends to lean more toward the darker side of fantasy. Grim, gothic, and the supernatural. However, classic and modern fantasy tropes set in this era are also fair game.

Prompt: an alchemist nears the completion of their greatest experiment or discovery. Your story must also include a dragon in some fashion.

Same rules and submission guidelines apply. Stories are due (Monday – 3/20/23) at midnight. Good luck!
#MarchMicrofictionMadness

[Editor note: prompt dropped in the Apex Facebook group as of Sunday, March 19 – reposted above.  Also, in case you are not in the semi-finals, feel free to play this at home and share your microfiction writing with your story circle. ]

Rules and where to send is pinned at the top of Apex Facebook group. Or, look for 

#MarchMicrofictionMadness

March Microfiction Madness TRAINING WORKSHOP #3 by Joshua Dyer:

This time we enter the dojo of the writing ninja.

We laid before you a genre gauntlet and you all rose to the challenge. Well done! I gave you specific genre mashups for a reason. First, the Punk genres are making a huge comeback/resurgence. Several open calls are searching for one flavor of punk or another with solarpunk and hopepunk being the most requested. Being familiar with these punks will help prepare you for more paying/publishing opportunities. Second, I intentionally mashed up two opposing genres to push you out of your comfort zones. You’ll only grow when you stretch your skills beyond their boundaries. Hyah!

Now, I let you in on one of my writing ninja secrets. Your mind, body, and spirit must move as one in your work if you are to successfully conquer your foes (contests/open calls). Mr. Myagi knew this. Wang Shi in “Big Trouble in Little China” also understood. Wang failed to split the bottle because his mind and spirit were going north and south. Focus your writing on the oneness, ninjas.

Mind.

Your story must possess an intellectual appeal. It must intrigue the mind. Challenge your reader’s way of thinking on your chosen theme. Find ways to incorporate intellectual hooks in your stories.

Body.

Your story must possess an external goal that your characters strive to gain. Shared goals for cross purposes leads to conflicts. Conflicts, dear ninjas, are the mighty engines of your stories. Make your external goals clear and of great importance!

Spirit.

Your stories must possess an emotional and internal goal/motivator for each character. Readers read to connect with your characters. For a story to be successful, your readers must become your characters. For this to happen, the reader needs to feel what your character feels. Empathize with them.

Bringing it together in some Fiction-jutsu.

David Farland calls it character circuitry. How do your characters feel about one another? How do the relate to each other? Do they share a history? A common goal or want? The more you know about these interworkings, the more conflicts you will undoubtedly uncover.

That is enough for this session, ninjas. Until next we meet.

*bows gracefully*

Sensei J

#MarchMicrofictionMadness

📌 ON DECK for NEXT WEEK:

Monday’s (3/27/23 – 5:30 MT/7:30 pm ET) Strategy Meeting  – Come bring your loglines, your pitches, your newsletters or websites! And your questions.

We will be using Strategy meeting to get feedback on things that we are working on. And if we have time, we will also be discussing how you can set up a group for a common purpose such as brainstorming, critiquing, and/or a writers’ ring.

Monday’s Mastermind, (3/27/23 at 7 pm MT/ 9pm ET ) – Beth Barany – Your Clear Message: Get Your Potential Readers Curious Now

Saturday’s Mastermind (3/25/23 – 8 am MT / 10 am ET) – Forrest Wolverton

 📌 PLUS, we have a great line-up coming up:

• Donald Maass, literary agent and CEO of the Donald Maass Literary Agency and author of the BREAKOUT NOVEL and THE EMOTIONAL CRAFT IN FICTION will be presenting “The Emotional Craft in Fiction” on Monday, April 10.

WANT TO SEE WHO IS ON WHEN?? Check out the links below.

Mastermind at a Glance

Strategy at a Glance


One last thing for this post: If there is a topic you would love to have a presenter on, let us know! Serving our community and offering quality information is a huge part of what we do here at Apex.

Unlock Your Full Writing Potential with NLP Master Coach Forrest Wolverton

Helping writers reach their full potential is our foremost guiding principle and we offer not only years of resources and education, and a vibrant community for networking; but also, the keys to an effective and joyful mindset. Why mindset? Mindset is the “magic” key that helps you unlock the pathway to success.

You probably can relate to some or all of these: Nothing is quite as demotivating as staring at a blank page for hours or even days, feeling completely stuck. Or, being plagued with the nagging feeling of imposter’s syndrome. Or being hit with yet another rejection email, or maybe worse, no responses at all to your submissions. Any of these easily could make a creative just give up BUT please don’t.

1. Your stories are not only important, but the fact is, no one will ever be able to tell YOUR story like you.
2. You don’t have to face this alone.

We are thrilled to introduce you to our NLP Master Coach Forrest Wolverton. His expertise, backed by not only a decade of training but by working alongside renowned author and writing coach, David Farland, gives him the unique skillset to help writers break through their blocks and achieve their writing goals.

Forrest has helped many writers already and he can help YOU with unleashing your creativity and taking your writing to the next level.

How will he do this? Forrest’s unique approach to NLP techniques helps to:

·        Identify root causes to your writing challenges

·        Guides you to your inner writing genius within your subconscious mind

·        Connects you to the power of flow, and

·        Assists you with embracing the confidence you need for greater success.

At Apex Writers, we believe everyone has the potential to be a great writer. If this is your calling, Forrest Wolverton as your NLP coach can help you to break through your blocks, discover your flow state, and level up your skill set and potential. Take the first step toward achieving your writing dreams and schedule a consultation with Forrest today. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page

You can still get your copies of the two new “Dave” books released recently from WordFire Press!

• Wizards and Wolves, the memorial anthology for the Dave Farland Scholarship fund
• Million Dollar Outlines, one of the best audience analysis, writing preparation and outlining books available.

If you buy directly from the WordFire Press links below, Kevin will autograph the foreword he wrote in the first 12 trade paperback copies of Wizards and Wolves and/or the first 12 trade paperbacks of Million Dollar Outlines.  Ordering directly from Kevin instead of Amazon or other channels ensures that a larger amount goes into the scholarship fund in honor of Dave.

https://wordfirepress.com/books/of-wizards-and-wolves-tales-of-transformation/

Did you know Apex offers Monday night write-ins?

Mike Jack Stoumbos hosts them every Monday night
8:30 MT / 10:30 pm ET.

Zoom link is in the Apex calendar.

Apex’s SFF discussion topics for this week:
Tuesday, 3/14/23 at 5:30 MT/ 7:30 ET

• Reader sites. Goodreads/ Hard copy/ Library/ etc. Is there any value on being on those sites.
• Do Reviews count if they are not on Amazon?
• Do you have your books on other sites other than Amazon, such as kobo and B&K? And, is it worth the time and effort?

  To learn more about SFF and/or how to join, contact Monica or Jan.

Midweekers is on the Apex calendar!

Every Sunday at 5 pm MT (7pm ET) we set up our goals for the week, and share resources. Come join the party after the “official accounting” part of the meeting we turn things over to craft discussion, brainstorming, pitch practice and more. Open to all Apex members no matter where on the path you are!

Search Tools to Make Things Easier

This is a handy tool – considering we are now on our fourth season of TEACHABLE zoom links!

****MORE HANDY LINKS!!****

The Course and Lecture Searchable

Strategy at a Glance

Mastermind at a Glance

Searchable Index for Strategy

Searchable Index for Mastermind


And We also have a handy place where you can see past newsletters!



Go to the Apex site, under Groups and click on Resource

📌 Shout-out to some of our Apexers for this week!

• To Joshua Dyer and our judges for the inaugural MMM challenge, the feedback, the workshops! AND to all of the participants!
  
• to Wulf Moon for his Super Secrets of Writing article, Magic Sword in the new issue of DreamForge magazine! If you want to know more about what a Magic Sword in story structure is and how to wield it to create winning stories, check it out. It’s free to read!
  Click here and Enjoy!

📌 If you have success news you’d like to share about yourself or another Apexer, please email Tammy  and have Apexer Good News in the subject line. We’d love to do a shout-out!!