This month’s posts are from guest blogger Kristin Noland. With over 80 manuscripts to her name—including two bestsellers, one a military thriller—Kristin has spent her career helping authors bring their stories to life and position their work for success. From intricate world-building to sharp pacing, intricate plots, and characters who stay with readers long after…
Crafting vivid story settings is all about making your readers feel like they’re actually there! But how does a writer accomplish that? I do great with dialog, never an issue coming up with things for people to say, but I still struggle with description. I have to work at it (usually in the self-editing stage),…
Change. Sometimes we willing embrace it—like getting a new computer. Sometimes it’s forced on us—like getting downsized. Either way, it’s rarely easy. Why is that? Because we prefer to stay in our comfort zone, no matter how uncomfortable we are with what’s in our comfort zone. But like a caterpillar to a butterfly, change is…
As promised, here is a list of posts about marketing for writers I’ve done that you might have missed if you’re new to my blog. Clearly, I don’t have as many posts on marketing as I do writing. That’s because I’m a writer, not a marketer. But like all writers, marketing is a task I…
I’m kicking back a bit this month to relax and get focused on my next book. At this writing, I still haven’t figured out what will come next. There’s more than a decade’s worth of posts on this blog, and unless you utilize the search box in the right side bar, you’re missing out on…
With Thanksgiving next week, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all my readers. You’re the reason I’m here writing blogs each month and weekly emails so I can help you on your writing journey, be it with writing tips or simply encouragement and motivation. My first foray into the blogging world was with…
Updated November 4, 2024. Knowing your target audience or ideal reader—today’s term is avatar—is important in many ways. As the term implies, you are aiming at a target, so knowing as much as you can about it will enable you to hit the bull’s-eye. Often the message you hope to convey through your fiction or…
Let’s face it, coming up with email ideas to engage our subscribers is often a hurdle for writers, especially fiction writers. So today, I’ve got some ideas to share for both fiction and nonfiction writers. 5 Email Ideas for Fiction Writers