The dreaded slush pile. No one ever wants their manuscript to be tossed into this pile. All their hard work given up to chance that maybe someone just might pull your manuscript out and read it thinking it was the next Nicholas Sparks or Nora Roberts best-selling novel. Unfortunately, for most of us, we will either end up in this slush pile or, quite frankly, no pile at all. I'll be honest. As most of you know, I've never been published so I'm, as they say, relatively green behind the ears … [Read more...]
N is for Novel
The novel. It's been around for not only years but centuries. It's a place where we can lose ourselves as we read what's been written on the page. We can go off on adventures or fall in love with a prince. We can go to a place only the imagination can make up or a place we've never been before. Novels can be both historical or contemporary. They can teach us things or simply be a nice escape from reality. They can be light and just a fun read or they can be go deep delving into emotions that … [Read more...]
Day 103: Closing the Gap
In our own world as we are learning to write down what has formed in our heads, whether a story idea or a journal entry, we all have a place where we start and somehow learn to close the gap to where we want to be. I still remember the first night I sat down to start writing the story idea that came to me. I wrote a little bit of it and then read it to my hubby. It was listening to his reader perspective and how in his experience of reading that he helped me to better the story I had come up … [Read more...]
Day 90: The Wrestling Match
Here's a question for you: Are you ever fully satisfied with yourself? If you say yes, I don't think you're being truthful with yourself. No matter who we are or what we do there's always room to grow. As a writer, I'm still a long way off from being able to write a book with as few of edits as possible. I'm so in the throes of learning this craft to make it the best I can. Just over two years ago I joined ACFW and I have learned so much on how to improve my writing. I'm still amazed … [Read more...]
Day 84: How to Be a Writer
There's an age-old saying that says "patience is a virtue." However, God skipped the boat with me on that front. Sometimes I can feel the frustration boiling up to where my lid could blow a hole through the roof. I know my voice can suddenly shoot up to screaming in a second. This has been a flaw of mine since I can remember. Through all of this, God decided in His infinite wisdom that I could handle a blond hair, Caribbean blue-eyed beautiful little girl who happened to have severe classic … [Read more...]
Day 40: Inspiration
I think inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. It just hits us. I still remember being up in my bedroom when the story idea came to me and that very night I started my first attempt at writing fiction. To take a simple idea and then turn that into a 100,000 word book is mind-boggling. Not many people have the patience or stamina to do it. You really have to want to be a writer to do it. The amazing part about all of this is when you type out that first novel you'll find out what so … [Read more...]
Day 26: The Trampoline as a Metaphor
Life sometimes can totally surprise us in the most unexpected ways. For instance, a big trampoline. How in the world is a trampoline possibly related to writing? Before I read today's except on the phrase above, I was stumped. Then I started to read how scared to death the woman was by "what looked like a big lake of black water." She said, "I’m here to tell you that it is impossible to be calm and dignified on a trampoline. It is also impossible to feel safe on one. I crawled onto [it] and … [Read more...]
Day 25: Failing Better
"Fail. Fail again. Fail better." This is a quote by Samuel Beckett. And here is another one by Thomas Edison: “I didn’t fail one thousand times. The lightbulb was an invention with one thousand steps.” I think we hear many times throughout our lifetime how it doesn't matter how many times we fail as long as we keep on trying. If we stop at the 999,999th time, it might have been that millionth time that could've been the one to work. For me, I've been constantly learning about writing both … [Read more...]
Day 20: Naked in the Hallway
In a nutshell: Privacy. It seems like all we ever want in this life sometimes is privacy. There are things in our past that if others find out will leave us vulnerable. Raw. Open. My childhood was anything but easy. As for school, it was harder for me than a typical child due to my learning disability, Dyslexia. Today, most people still don't know I have it. In fact, if someone finds out about it they're surprised. When I was young I was held back in 2nd grade. Even after that I struggled. … [Read more...]
Day 16: Exploding Typewriters, Smoking Computers
I think all of us at some point while plugging away on our computers wish the darn thing would self combust. We either can't figure the darn thing out or it just isn't working like it's supposed to. We'd love to take a sledgehammer to it as it'd feel so good to put the darn thing in its place. Anyone who knows me knows how much of a technology person I am. And learning new electronic things comes so naturally or software programs. The chances are that if I don't know that much about a program … [Read more...]
