It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Thank you to this month’s IWSG co-hosts: Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin! Today I will be writing about my experience writing about my husband’s cancer journey on his CaringBridge blog, as I answer the IWSG Day question for May: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Maybe it doesn’t qualify as an early experience, but it has by far, been the experience with the most impact. I always loved writing, but I didn’t know Read more…
Mills & Boon have been publishing romance novels for over a hundred years, yet it was an unknown self-published author, E. L. James, who hit the best seller list with her “50 Shades of Grey.” For millions of people around the world, it had the “WOW” factor. Somehow it has hit an important known (or unknown) need or want, also known as “pain points.” That’s a little bit of wordplay for readers familiar with the book’s premise. Think a challenge your ideal user is facing. What are their biggest pain points? What would really “wow” them? The A to Z Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. The amazing co-hosts for April 3 IWSG are: J.H. Moncrieff, Natalie Aguirre, Patsy Collins, and Chemist Ken! This month, I’m talking about action scenes. The IWSG Day question for April is: If you could use a wish to help you write just ONE scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be? (examples: fight scene / first kiss scene / death scene / chase scene / first chapter / middle chapter / end chapter, etc.) Action scenes are really hard for me. I don’t even Read more…
Have you ever assessed your writing and who you are as a writer? Recently, Creative Writing Now sent out a Writer’s Assessment Worksheet to their e-mail list (which I happen to be on). Here are my answers: What kind of writer would you like to be? I want to be the kind of writer whose work people don’t want to put down. I want to write fascinating characters whose lives are transformed by the end of the book. Of course, this question is really trying to ferret out my genre of choice. Mystery/suspense novels of a historical nature are what Read more…
As a writer, it’s essential for me to have a constant spark of creativity. So, whenever a tool comes along that helps generate ideas, I have to try it out. I’m excited to share my favorite creativity app with you. It is called the brainsparker app. I can’t think of a better name for it. “Brainsparker is a creativity app designed to spark your imagination, disrupt your routine thinking and trigger your brain to come up with new ideas and better solutions.” What I love about the brainsparker app The brainsparker app is easy to use and it puts creativity at your Read more…
As I wrap up my series on how to write a review, I want to share my favorite tool with you, as well as tell you how I use it. It’s a review template. This particular template is for a fiction book review, although I’ve included a couple of questions for nonfiction books at the bottom of the list. Feel free to copy this template and use it. I encourage you to create your own template to match your own personal style. You could make one for nonfiction books, one for fiction, one for physical products, one for services, etc. The Read more…
Writing a review doesn’t have to be intimidating. All you’re really doing is sharing your opinion about a book, product, or service. Today we’re going to look more in-depth at how to write a book review. We will look at the different styles of book reviews you can write. Some people use a variety of styles, depending on how they feel about the book they are reviewing. Others prefer to stick with one style. How to write a book review at it most basic We have all seen book reviews that say, “I loved this book! The characters were great.” Read more…
Last week I shared some of the reasons we should write reviews of the products, books, and services we purchase. This week we will look at one of the easiest and most popular places to do this—Amazon.com. The online retail giant has helped make reviews a routine part of shopping online. In fact, it has become such an integral part of the shopping experience that 72% of Americans will wait to make a purchase until after they have read the reviews.[1] Thankfully, Amazon has made writing reviews easy. The first way that Amazon has made writing reviews easy When you Read more…
When you buy something on Amazon (or any other online retailer), do you skip reading the reviews, or do you use them to help you decide whether you should hit the “buy” button? Do you make a habit of writing a review for books, products, and services you buy? Over 95% of us check the reviews before buying. In fact, if a product or business has at least 5 positive reviews, a customer is 4 times as likely to purchase than if there are fewer. [1] Yet, 31.5% of consumers say they never get around to writing a review.[2] Reviews Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. This month I will be discussing when people ask a favorite or least favorite question about my writing, as I answer the Insecure Writer’s Support group question for January 2nd. What is your favorite and least favorite question people ask you about your writing? I don’t really have a least favorite question about my writing. But there are some that I love. Here are some Read more…
Today we’re going to talk about putting a deadline on our goals and incorporating them into a reasonable timeline. Then, we will combine the timeline with the other elements we’ve been looking at for the past month, in our “Goal Posts” series, and write some SMART Goals. For a general overview of what SMART GOALS are, check out this post that I wrote a year ago. SMART goals are written based on criteria using the pneumonic acronym SMART which stands for the following: S=Specific M=Measurable A=Achievable R=Relevant T=Time We will take all of the elements of your SMART goal and Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today, for the first time, I won’t be answering the optional #IWSG question of the month (How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?). I just couldn’t come up with an answer. And, after all, it is “optional.” But I encourage you to check out some of the answers the other fabulous insecure writers have written. I will be writing about empathy. Read more…
Some writers you may have the ability to let ‘er rip and say whatever you darn well please. Or maybe you question your conscience about whether certain things are appropriate to include in your fiction writing, or not. Things that might be sensitive include: Violence content of a sexual nature vulgar language biographical information which could harm the reputation or sensibilities of another living (or dead) person anything else that the particular writer is afraid to share authentically Genre Sometimes it all comes down to the genre. There are certain genres where taboo topics and anything graphic is a strict Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I’m going to explore self-publishing with print-on-demand, as I answer the #IWSG question for October – How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something? Anything you have ever gone through will affect who you are personally, and as a writer. It will certainly color your writing in subject and tone. When life isn’t going well, it can Read more…
Creating a realistic setting doesn’t happen automatically when you write a story. Yet it’s one of the essential components to draw readers into your story so they can walk among the characters. Today I’ll share some ways you can simplify building this imaginary world and make it more real for your readers. Composite Method of Creating a Realistic Setting Sometimes to get the perfect setting you need to combine aspects from different places you know or imagine. For example in a fictional town I created, I based the one in Litchfield, Minnesota, the town where my mom’s side of the Read more…
Think about the last book you read that had great characters. How were the characters described? Did the author go into great detail about each character’s appearance, or did they write more of a character sketch, allowing the reader to fill in the details? The best characters are usually approached the second way. It seems contrary to our instinct as writers, to be vague in describing things like a character’s appearance, but it’s actually the better approach. There are a few reasons for this. Describing a character’s appearance stops the story. Rather than moving the story forward, everything comes to Read more…
I recently began reading a book that I put down after 3 short chapters. I wanted to read it. The premise was good, but some of the basic elements that make a story good were all wrong. Those elements all had to do with characterization. Writing characters well is essential to making a fiction book work. Characters are who we relate to in a story, who we love, and who we despise. There are right ways and wrong ways to write characters. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share how to get characters right—or at least, how to Read more…
Karen Hume of the fantastic blog, Profound Journey, posted 25 Totally Terrifying Meaning of Life Questions Worth Asking Yourself. I bookmarked them and intend to answer one every so often. For me, it really is terrifying. Even though I share a lot of my life on my other site, Facing Cancer with Grace, there’s also a lot I keep to myself. In an effort to be brave and transparent I am going to share a childhood memory of my crabby neighbor as I answer question # 7: When was the first time you were afraid? (Question from Natalie Goldberg). When Read more…
Sometimes life hands you lemonade right after you’ve brushed your teeth. That’s how the last few weeks have felt for me. Dealing with a medical emergency for one of my children as well as a turn of events in my husband’s cancer, left me little time to write. That happens sometimes, doesn’t it? The problem is that writing is almost as necessary as air for a writer. How do you get out of a writer’s rut? Getting out of a writer’s rut can be a chore In physics, there is a principle known as Newton’s first law of motion – Read more…
Life in our house is a little crazy right now. My husband is participating in a clinical trial for lung cancer at the Mayo Clinic to treat. One of our daughters has been dealing with her own medical problems, so I thought I would do something different this week by sharing 12 things about me. What does your ideal day look like? My ideal day would begin with me waking up to a quiet clean house. I would have a strong cup of coffee and spend the day writing. At noon, I would go to lunch with my daughters and Read more…
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Reviews by Heather Erickson I’m an experienced reviewer of books, products, experiences-You name it! Sometimes I am given a product or book in exchange for an honest review. I always say whether or not this is the case, in the review itself. I always give my honest opinion. Learn More
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