Motivation Vs. Habit – NaNoWriMo Daily Writing Tips
On the door at my gym, someone hung a sign that says, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit keeps you going.” I began working out regularly about 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve dropped about 75 pounds, and I’ve run or walked something in neighborhood of 22,000 miles. I can’t even imagine how much […]
Silk Road Takedown is Officially Released, plus Writing Openings with Promise
Silk Road Takedown has been a project of Curtis Green, myself, and Diann Thornley Read for the past several months, researching and editing Curtis Green’s personal story of Silk Road and what it took to bring it down. Here’s the book blurb: In 2011, the Silk Road website was set up on the Dark Web in […]
Take Courage – NaNoWriMo Daily Writing Tips
As a writer, are you willing to take the steps that you need to, in order to succeed? During a visit with my nephew, who works as a very successful physical therapist, he said, “You know, I often have people ask me how to become a physical therapist, and so I tell them, but no […]
Finding Courage to Dream Big – NaNoWriMo Daily Writing Tips
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf You may not realize it, but as writers we are all on the same journey. We all start as “wannabes,” hoping to amaze audiences with our eloquence and powerful tales, and so we set out on a quest to […]
Making the Most of NaNoWriMo – NaNoWriMo Dailies
National Novel Writing Month starts in just two days, and a couple of times in the past week I’ve had people ask, “How can I make the most of NaNoWriMo?” More than 400,000 writers across America will set a goal to “write a novel in a month.” The novel is defined as 50,000 words in […]
What’s the Real Motive?
When you’re creating a well-rounded character, one of the great secrets behind understanding the character comes from understanding the character’s secret, often hidden motives. Understanding a character comes from understanding why they act the way that they do. Time and again, I find authors who sort of cheat themselves. As they create a character and […]
Recognizing Your Own Skill
When you write a story, you often have to ask yourself, “Is this tale good enough to send to editors or agents? Is it ready to publish? Could it be a bestseller?” Oddly enough, you as the author may be a terrible judge of your own work.This principle was brought up to me years ago […]
The Cure
I went to Midland, Texas over the weekend. On a taxi ride from the airport, the driver asked what I did for a living and commented, “I’ve always wanted to write a novel.” There was a genuine ache in his voice, as if he’d left something undone on his bucket list, and I thought, The […]
What if You Write a Great Book and the Publisher Doesn’t Buy It?
In the last year, I’ve had several writer friends and students send me samples of just fantastic novels that should have been snapped up by agents and publishers, but weren’t. In some instances, the author went to every major agent in the business, and none even wanted to see it. At times like that, it’s […]
Damaged Characters
One time I caught the season finale to a show that finds needy families and then rebuilds or replaces their homes. In this case, the father in the family seemed to be a great coach and a great person, but he was suffering from ALS, a disease that will take his life within a year […]