Over the years, I’ve dabbled with various writing software and have always found them wanting. I’d pretty much given up on the hope of finding a program that would meet my needs as a writer… and then someone at the ChristianWriters forums introduced me to yWriter. yWriter was designed by author and programmer Simon Haynes, […]
Search Results for: theme
July 19, 2009 by 22 Comments Prose3 Ways to Make Cliches Work in Your Writing
True story: Sometime last year, I encountered a man named Howard (name changed to protect the not-so-innocent) who had written a fantasy novel that he couldn’t seem to sell. And he just couldn’t understand it. “My work is 100-percent cliché free! I hate, loathe, and despise clichés. I’ve scoured my work and eliminated every single […]
July 12, 2009 by 43 Comments Narrative5 Ways to Use Pacing to Write a Powerful Story
Pacing is like a dam. It allows the writer to control just how fast or how slow his plot flows through the riverbed of his story. Understanding how to operate that dam–how to pace your story–is one of the most important tasks an author can learn. Without this skill, you end up writing stories that variously lack […]
July 5, 2009 by 22 Comments DescriptionDo You Have the Two Necessary Skills for Using Details to Bring Your Fiction to Life?
Most of the time when we think of great stories, we think of just that: stories. We don’t often think about the bits and pieces that make up the composite whole, the 206 different bones beneath the polished flesh, the mosaic chips that form the complete picture. But it’s these bits, bones, and chips that decide whether a story […]
July 1, 2009 by 28 Comments NewsAnnouncing Behold the Dawn and Winning Wednesdays
I’m thrilled to officially announce the publication of my second novel, Behold the Dawn. As regular followers of my blog may be aware, this novel has been a grand adventure for me over the last several years. Tackling a historical subject as mammoth as the Third Crusade, which takes place at the end of the […]
June 28, 2009 by 43 Comments CharactersCharacters: Likability Is Overrated
Writers want readers to love their characters. We want them to connect with the men and women who inhabit our stories. We want them to empathize so strongly that they are moved to laughter and to tears right along with these imaginary people we’ve created. So, naturally, we want our characters to be as likable […]
June 21, 2009 by 60 Comments ProseWhy Authors Should Be Using the BIG Words
I’m a vocabulary nut. I admit it. I love words. Little words, big words, unusual words, archaic words. In high school, I kept a piece of paper in the front of whatever book I was reading, so I could write down unfamiliar words and look them up the next day. Whenever I looked up a word, I underlined it, and […]
June 14, 2009 by 53 Comments Writer's HelpThe 5 Secrets of Grabbing Your Readers’ Emotions
Want to know the secrets of grabbing your readers’ emotions? For starters, let’s pretend I’m your reader–‘cuz I’m a hard sell. I’m not a very emotional person. Even when I feel deeply about something, it takes a lot to move me to tears. I can count on my fingers the stories that have made me […]
June 7, 2009 by 56 Comments DescriptionTwo Things Every Author Needs to Know About Using Brand Names in Fiction
Consumerism in fiction has become increasingly prominent in recent years. Powerhouse companies have gone from mere advertisements—commercials during television shows, billboards outside ballparks, joint advertisements with blockbuster movies—to what many people consider a blatant overuse and occasionally even abuse of product placement in sports coliseums, movies, TV shows, and even books, such as Lauren Weisburger’s best-selling […]
April 19, 2009 by 24 Comments Writing LifeLearn How to Project (and Find) Yourself in Your Writing
Have you ever found yourself looking up from the pages of a book and wondering how much the words you’re reading are a reflection of the author’s own personality and life? We’re all familiar with famous examples of autobiographical fiction (such as Dickens’s David Copperfield) in which it’s easy to draw parallels between the make-believe […]
