I took a circuitous route to my writing career. A registered nurse, I worked as the clinical supervisor of the coronary care unit and the assistant clinical supervisor of the intensive care tower at Baptist Integris in Oklahoma City. My life revolved around live and death decisions every day. I could almost smell the spirit…
Is there anything worse than staring at a blank screen and not knowing what to type? Whether you’re a Pantser or Plotter, writer’s block stinks! But believe it or not there is a cure. Some die-hard plotters would say “if you plotted out your story before you wrote it then you wouldn’t have writer’s block.” But I’m sure even…
One night in 2009 on Britain’s Got Talent, a little woman walked on stage, hairy eyebrows and a saucy attitude. Nervous, she struggled to remember where she lived. In the background were snickers and whispers of ridicule as she shared her dream to become a professional singer. Everyone laughed. The judges and the audience. Until…
The call to write is both a blessing and a burden. Not many understand the labor and longsuffering it requires. The perseverance takes dedication and the rejection from publishers can be overwhelming. Years ago, just when I was about to give up, encouragement came from a wise old oak tree. Bruce climbed down the ladder…
Most of the new authors I work with struggle with writing from deep point of view. Mastering POV is essential for fiction writers. It puts your readers in the head of the character and enables them to become emotionally connected to your story. As a novelist, you’re not aiming for your readers to hear a…
How do you prepare your writing space? This was the question posed to the 2017 Write Well Sell Well non-fiction panel. All of us on the panel had different answers. In fact, I’ve yet to find two writers who write in the exact same way. Some writers write best sitting at their desks. They succeed…
Big and hairy, green teeth dripping with goo. You get the idea. It’s a villain. No matter what he, she or it looks like, a bad guy’s primary goal is to shut down the good guy. The protagonist needs to make forward motion and for whatever reason, the villain disagrees. In good fiction, the bad…
Viewpoint is an ongoing source of concern for writers. When I edit manuscripts, I comment on viewpoint problems more than any other single issue. Why? It’s really not that complicated (after you’ve done it thirty or forty times). Look, you just need to pick a viewpoint and stick with it throughout a scene. If you change…
“It’s not rocket science,” I said to a small group of hopeful people who wanted to become published authors. It was the first time the founders of Write Well, Sell Well OKC had hosted a writer’s intensive at Lake Eufaula. Until then, I’d had no idea how many misconceptions people had about writing. Especially writing…
Dear White Page, I’m writing you this letter because it seems appropriate and sort of proves a point I’m going to make later, if you’ll bear with me. But let me start from the beginning. I don’t dislike you. I want you to know that up front. I actually consider you a dear friend. I…