THE CRAFT OF WRITING — DECEMBER 2021

Social Media

 

SOCIAL MEDIA! Many of us have a love/hate relationship with this enormous influencer in our world. While there are positive aspects to keeping up with our friends and family, there are negatives when it comes to spending hours skimming posts or witnessing heated discussions. There’s even evidence that too much social media is detrimental to one’s mental health.

However, as authors, we can use these platforms to make the world aware of our books. Navigating the waters of which platforms to use, how often to post, and how to best use their resources is the subject of today’s post.

I have long wanted to have Edie Melson as a guest on The Craft of Writing blog. Edie is an acknowledged expert on social media, and her advice can enhance our use of those tools to sell books and change the world. Social Media for Today’s Writer, which Edie co-authored with DiAnn Mills, is my go-to guide for using social media.

* * *

Edie Melson is a woman of faith with ink-stained fingers observing life through the lens of her camera. No matter whether she’s talking to writers, entrepreneurs, or readers, her first advice is always “Find your voice, live your story.” As an author, blogger, and speaker she’s encouraged and challenged audiences across the country and around the world. Her numerous books reflect her passion to help others develop the strength of their God-given gifts and apply them to their lives. Connect with her on her WEBSITE, through FACEBOOK, TWITTER and on INSTAGRAM.

* * *

 

Social Media with Edie Melson on the Craft of Writing Blog. Share on X

 

Welcome, Edie, and thank you for joining us!

 

When did you first get involved with social media?

I fell into social media by accident. I became the managing editor of an online magazine for young Christian men in 2008. It didn’t take me long to realize that to grow the magazine readership—and communicate with my co-workers—I had to learn social media. At the time I didn’t have a blog or any social media accounts and my phone was an old-style flip phone.

I learned how to ask the questions I needed answers for in search engines, took online workshops and read every marketing blog I could. What I learned was how to do social media efficiently and effectively. That training has translated to helping myself as a writer and other writers how to utilize this valuable tool without losing important writing time.

Are there particular platforms you recommend for authors to use?

It’s important for an author to understand where your audience hangs out. I find Facebook and Twitter to be the most valuable for the books I write. But Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all valuable options.

It’s also very important for an author to be active on more than one platform regularly. Things happen on social media, accounts get suspended and even deleted. If you’re only on one platform and something goes wrong, you have to have another place where your audience can find you.

Also keep in mind that if you love Facebook and Instagram—those two only count as ONE platform because Facebook owns Instagram. So if Facebook suspends your FB account, chances are good that they’ll also shut down your Instagram account.

What benefits do you see social media having for authors?

I’m on social media as an extension of my mission as a writer. I use social media to serve my audience. That service—giving without expecting anything in return—is what also grows my audience. Trying to use social media as a place to ONLY advertise books is the quickest way to fail. No one like commercials and if your social media account comes across as only advertising, no one will be interested.

Social media is also a great way to network with other industry professionals. I’ve developed some solid friendships through social media with editors, agents and other writers.

How does an author go about establishing a presence on social media?

The most important thing is to give something valuable. Other writers follow me on social media because I share solid information about being a writer—from how tos, to industry news, to tips. Readers follow me because I share spiritual encouragement—devotions, Bible verses, interesting articles about living out your faith in our world today. I also have a small following of those interested in photography and creativity—I share how to articles for all sorts of crafts, as well as tips for photographers.

I do all of this without expecting anything in return.

This proves to my audience that I’m more interested in helping them than promoting myself. Once I’ve gained their trust, then when I have something I need help with—like launching a new book—they’re happy to help.

So a good rule is to give first and often, long before you begin asking favors.

How often should an author promote his/her own work on social media? What other things should they consider posting about?

I recommend what has come to be called “Edie’s 5 to 1 Rule.” For every 5 social media posts I share, I allow myself 1 post about myself—that promotes something I’m doing—like a blog post I wrote or a new book.

Using this guideline helps our social media feeds NOT look self-serving.

How important is it to build a large following on social media? How do you go about doing that?

An engaged following is much more important than large numbers. Publishers want to know that an author has a connection with the readers they’re trying to reach. So an author with a Facebook group of 1,000 where seventy-five percent of those are actively posting and engaging is much more desirable than a Facebook page with 10,000 followers who never see or comment on what the author posts. Different publishers have different expectations and guidelines for authors.

The most important thing is to have a growing presence—better this month than last month. That takes small CONSISTENT commitment. I recommend spending 30 minutes a day 4 – 5 days a week.

I often hear about new platforms for social communication. What can you tell us about them?

TikTok is continuing to gain popularity, as is MeWe. TikTok is video driven, almost like a video version of Instagram. Of course that’s a generalization, but I think you get the idea. MeWe is similar to Facebook, but with a lot less rules and a lot less people on it. But it also is showing promise. Parler is another one that’s gaining ground.

What topics do you cover in Social Media for Today’s Writer?

This book covers how to engage on the most popular social media platforms. We share recommended practices, and some things that can get authors in trouble. It’s written so that beginners can understand it and more advanced users can pick up new tricks and streamline the process.

What single piece of advice would you give to new authors about the use of social media?

We recommend that writers begin using social media BEFORE they become authors. It takes time to build a solid social media platform and having one in place can make launching a book much easier. You don’t have to spend hours a day to create a good following. It’s more important to be consistent than to spend huge blocks of time.

We also suggest you have an account on all the major networks—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, & TikTok. Having an account means you have your name, bio, and link to your website. Then find two or three networks where you enjoy hanging out and spend your time there. You don’t have to be active on all the platforms, but it is good to reserve your account in case it becomes the next big thing!

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

My blog for writers is www.TheWriteConversation.com and my website is www.EdieMelson.com. I’m also on social media as Edie Melson!

Thank you, Edie, for sharing your expertise with us!

Social Media with Edie Melson on the Craft of Writing Blog Share on X

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — NOVEMBER 2021

The Conflict Thesaurus

 

CONFLICT! We avoid it in our personal lives, but as authors, we embrace it. And today, I am thrilled to welcome Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi to the Craft of Writing blog to talk about their new thesaurus: The Conflict Thesaurus.

For those who may not be familiar with Angela and Becca, they have produced nine thesauri to help us write our books. From the very first one, the wildly popular Emotion Thesaurus, they have provided us with the tools we need to keep our readers turning the pages.

In addition, Angela and Becca host the Writers Helping Writers website, at https://writershelpingwriters.net/

The last time they appeared on the Craft of Writing blog, we played a game where readers could test their skill at identifying a particular emotion based on description. This time, they’ve created an interactive game for you to go on an imaginary journey with the two of them. It’s called The Conflict Challenge, and your result will depend on the choices you make along the way. There’s a link in the last question of the interview to take you to the game.

 

* * *

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are writing coaches, international speakers, and co-authors of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression and its many sequels. Available in eight languages, their guides are sourced by US universities, recommended by agents and editors, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, and psychologists around the world. To date, this book collection has sold 750,000 copies.

Long-time writing partners, Angela and Becca are passionate about helping others, especially writers. To this end they co-founded the popular site Writers Helping Writers, a description hub for writers and One Stop for Writers, an innovative creativity portal for one-of-a-kind tools that give writers exactly what they need to craft unbelievably rich stories and characters.

Please visit them at the sites above because they love to connect with people in the writing industry. And if you’re ready to see your writing skills take a giant leap, give the free trial at One Stop for Writers a spin.   

* * *

 

Join the conversation about The Conflict Thesaurus! Share on X

Welcome, Angela and Becca, and thank you for joining us!

 

What prompted the two of you to develop the series of thesauri?

Angela: After the response to our flagship thesaurus and book, The Emotion Thesaurus, we realized that writers needed help with more than just describing emotions. Their struggle in this area was a part of something much bigger: understanding what show-don’t-tell truly meant and how to apply it across all elements of storytelling via description.

What was the first book, and when did it come out?

Becca: The Emotion Thesaurus was actually first, and it started at our blog. When we began Writers Helping Writers (then, called The Bookshelf Muse) in 2008, we started posting about a new emotion each week, highlighting the physical cues, thoughts, and internal sensations associated with each so writers would see how to show those emotions instead of telling them to their readers. We didn’t know at the time what a universal problem the telling of emotion was; this became clear as our following grew and people began clamoring for more. Based on the response to The Emotion Thesaurus, we decided to publish it in book form in 2012. An expanded and updated 2^nd edition followed in 2019.

Why did you decide to write The Conflict Thesaurus?

Angela: Our mission is to show writers how to strengthen their storytelling, and this means diving into all elements that power great fiction and showing writers how to activate them better. Conflict is a primary, must-have story ingredient because it supplies resistance. For a story to be compelling, we need problems, challenges, and adversaries (outer conflict) that force the character to fight for what they want and cause the outcome to be uncertain. We also need personal struggles (internal conflict) that provides a chance to look within at the maelstrom of fears, beliefs, needs, desires, and pain that may be shaping their decisions and actions. As they say, knowledge is power, and the character understanding themselves better and making necessary changes can be the difference between success and failure. Written well, inner and outer conflict will hold readers captive until the last page is turned.

Tell us about The Conflict Thesaurus.

Becca: The Conflict Thesaurus explores different conflict options in a variety of categories from relationship friction to no-win-scenarios to moral dilemmas and temptations. Each conflict entry looks at the minor complications, potentially disastrous results, and internal struggles that could arise in that scenario, as well as exploring possible positive outcomes and attributes that could help the character cope in the meantime. These entries are what most authors are looking for, because they offer brainstorming options and explain how each scenario could wreak havoc in the story. But we believe that the instructive front matter is just as vital, because it provides a tutorial on what conflict is, its role in a story, and how it fits into the character arc. It even provides a database of possible adversaries that can help stir the pot. So there’s a lot here for writers wanting to either find possible conflicts or learn more about this important storytelling element.

 

Can you give us some examples of conflict that are included in your latest book?

Angela: There are 110 different conflict scenarios represented, and each can be endlessly adapted. It’s all about finding a complication that takes things from bad to worse. Maybe a character finds themselves fending off an Unwanted Romantic Romance, or they discover they’ve Been Manipulated. Possibly they Break Something Important, Cause an Accident, or Confide in the Wrong Person. It could be they’ve been Given an Ultimatum, their Deadline Has Been Moved Up, or they are faced with a painful choice: Sacrificing One Thing for Another. Whatever the conflict, we provide ideas on what the fallout would be, everything from minor complications to an array of disastrous results. The list of scenarios we cover can be found here, along with a few sample entries that you can see as an example.

What single piece of advice would you give to new authors?

Becca: My best piece of advice is for new authors to set clear goals. For most of us, writing started out as a hobby. I think this is why so many people want to write a novel but never do: because hobbies are low on the priority list. Make your writing a priority by deciding what you want to accomplish and setting reasonable but challenging goals. This could be a daily or weekly word count or time-based goal, a deadline for finishing your first draft, a certain number of query letters you’ll send out each week, or a five-year overall goal that clearly defines what success will look like for you. Knowing what you want and setting related objectives will put you on the path to getting where you want to go.

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Angela: We love helping writers develop their skills, and we have two powerful ways to do that: our Writers Helping Writers site where we blog about writing craft and you can find out more about our books, and then One Stop for Writers, which is a bit of a writer’s utopia as we provide all the tools, resources, and step-by-step help a storyteller will need. to plan, write, and revise their way to a best-selling book. Even better? It shortens the learning curve as just by using our tools, you grow your writing abilities.

Okay. It’s time for the game. Please tell readers about The Conflict Challenge.

Becca: This challenge puts you in the hot seat as the main character in our fun and campy story. Like the protagonists in your own books, you’ll face a series of conflict scenarios and will be given choices about how to respond. Choose poorly, and you probably won’t make it. Choose wisely, and there are prizes to be won! Here’s the premise:

You’ve been invited to join Angela and Becca on a writing retreat in Alberta, Canada. They’ve rented out all the cabins of an old summer camp that closed down ten years ago only after a single season…which is sort of odd, but this remote Rocky Mountain location with no cell reception seems like a perfect place to get some writing done. Will you accept the invitation to join them at Deadwood Falls Summer Camp?

Readers, click here to take the challenge. Don’t forget to come back and let us know how you did!

Thank you, Angela and Becca, for sharing your expertise with us!

 

Join the conversation about The Conflict Thesaurus! Share on X

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — OCTOBER 2021

Stork Bite

 

I’m excited to welcome author Lisa Simonds back to the Craft of Writing blog. Lisa first appeared on this blog in February 2020 when we discussed her debut novel, All In.

Lisa is back today as an award-winning novelist for her second work, Stork Bite, which won a 2021 IPPY Award. New authors take note: it’s possible to be recognized for your work even early on in your career!

 

***

 

 

L.K. Simonds is a Fort Worth local. She has worked as a waitress, KFC hostess, telephone marketer, assembly-line worker, nanny, hospital lab technician, and air traffic controller. She’s an instrument-rated pilot and an alumna of Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas.

Her debut novel, All In, was released in August 2019. Her second novel, Stork Bite, released in November 2020.

 

TWEETABLE:

STORK BITE with author Lisa Simonds Share on X

 

***

Welcome Lisa Simonds and thank you for joining us!

Thank you, Kay! Good morning to you and everyone who’s joining us. October is my favorite month, and I’m thrilled and honored to be this month’s Craft of Writing guest.

 

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Please tell us about your journey to becoming an author.

Actually, no. The first career I really wanted was as a pilot. That was around the time I became a Christian and got my private pilot certificate. I wanted to be a missionary pilot with a group like Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). I have a friend, Nancy Cullen, who has volunteered in the Idaho and Indonesia MAF facilities. MAF uses small aircraft to help people who live in hard-to-reach locations.

Even though I didn’t always want to be an author, I always was drawn to stories. I lost myself in books when I was young, and I think all that reading nurtured my imagination. I made up stories in my head too, as far back as I can remember. I think fiction called to me a long time before I became self-aware as a writer.

You asked about becoming an author, which implies a readership. I think gaining a readership demands a submission to craft in order to write stories that other people want to read. Mastering the craft of writing, particularly the craft of fiction, is a never-ending quest. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, athletes who have their eyes on the prize submit to the discipline of training and run the race according to the rules. As a runner yourself, Kay, you know something about that. The prize for writing isn’t an award, it’s a readership.

 

Can you give us a brief synopsis of your second novel, Stork Bite?

Stork Bite is difficult to capture in a brief synopsis. The novel encompasses two interconnected books. “Book One” is about a young black man named David Walker, and I titled it with his name. David’s peaceful, pastoral life is suddenly and dramatically torn from him when he accidentally kills a white man. The year is 1913 and the man David kills is a Klansman. David hides the crime and flees the scene because he fears what the Klan will do to him and his family. “Book One” is the story of what happens to David in the wake of that terrible event.

“Book Two” is titled “Shreveport,” and it introduces a cast of characters who live in Shreveport, Louisiana. Cargie (rhymes with Margie) Barr; her husband, Thomas; Mae Compton; and Jax Addington. “Book Two” picks up in 1927, about a decade after we leave David in “Book One,” and it follows the lives of the Shreveport crowd over many years. These characters may seem distant from the boy David Walker and his story, but all of their lives, including David’s, intertwine—some more directly than others.

I like the idea of the secret lives people have. It’s interesting to me that two people can be right next to each other physically, but each can have whole worlds happening inside them that the other doesn’t know about. I touched on that idea a lot in Stork Bite. There’s one scene in which Cargie, who has been reading a lot of novels, thinks it’s strange that her husband, Thomas, doesn’t know all the goings on inside her head when she lays it on the pillow next to his. But then, Thomas has his own secrets that Cargie doesn’t suspect either.

In the early drafts, I played with interspersing David’s story with the Shreveport stories, jumping back and forth in time and place. This type of structure has been done effectively in some popular novels, but it didn’t work for Stork Bite. Based on feedback from some early readers, the intermingled narratives were disruptive and hard to follow. In the end, I decided to keep David’s story as a whole piece and place it at the beginning. The Book One/Book Two structure is unfamiliar to readers, and some are more than a little discombobulated by it. A few have had trouble getting past their initial disorientation to enjoy the novel. Others take to it just fine.

I want to say something here about the contract of trust between an author and a reader. I think it’s very, very important for authors to fulfill all the promises they’ve made by the end of a novel. That’s how we gain and hold readers’ trust, and it’s their trust that compels them to hang with us while we lead them through the labyrinth of our story. Trust is built over time, book by book. Part of a writer’s craft is learning to manage readers’ expectations throughout the story. We need readers to stay on the same page with us and not expect something we didn’t promise or didn’t intend to promise. That’s a huge part of craft as well.

 

What made you decide to write Stork Bite? How is it different from your first novel?

The genesis of Stork Bite was very different from All In. The novel that became All In grew from a desire to show the inner transformation when someone—in this case, a particular young woman—passes from unbelief through the veil to saving faith. All In was narrow and specific in its premise, and the story drove single-mindedly toward that end.

Stork Bite is a much more meandering, atmospheric novel. Before I wrote it, I had spent years thinking about how to capture some of my aunt’s life in a story. Aunt Mabel, my mother’s eldest sister, was a brave, decisive woman who endured more than her share of heartache. She lived in Shreveport, right across the street from Centenary College, and she was the inspiration for the character Mae Compton. During the writing, Mae became a very different person from my aunt, but I like to think Mabel would have understood Mae.

In the end, Stork Bite overflowed the boundaries of Aunt Mabel’s life, as I had imagined it, and became a story of my South. Many details in the novel came from my own tribal knowledge: a World War I diary, a dry-cleaning store, a juke joint on Lake Bistineau, cotton farming, squirrel hunting with a .22, a jilted beau, an abrupt marriage, a flight from a hurricane in the dead of night. A minor character is murdered by a jealous husband, and the killer is convicted because he reloaded and shot some more. That detail came from my great uncle, who did time in Angola for the crime.

I think Stork Bite’s strength is the world building that came from all those details. At least, that’s what readers who review or talk to me personally mention every time. They like the Southern vibe. Last week, I gave a copy to an acquaintance, and the first thing he asked was, “Does it have all the Southern…?” He didn’t finish the sentence because he couldn’t quite capture it in a word, but I think he wanted to know if he would be immersed in a Southern experience. I like to think Stork Bite gives readers that experience.

 

Tell us about the title, Stork Bite. How did you choose it and what does it mean?

I put a highlighted note on GoodReads about the title because readers are puzzled by it. I get that. There’s only one reference to a stork bite when a child in the story is born with one. For your readers who don’t know, a stork bite is a common birthmark on a baby’s forehead. They almost always fade with time.

The title is a metaphor for being born under the Adamic curse that is in this world. We all share an imperfect nativity. I love the shades of meaning in the Hebrew word we translate as nativity, as in Ezekial 16:4. They include everything about our entrance into this world: our family, our antecedents, our culture, our physical situation. We are all born, but the challenges our births entail are unique to each of us.

In one of the early manuscripts, I had David Walker considering all the joys and sorrows that accompany being born into this world. He thinks about how everyone is marked by trouble, like a birthmark. In the end, I felt David’s ruminations were a little too on the nose and I edited them out. In retrospect, I wish I had included some sort of epigraph at the beginning to explain the title, as Rebecca Makkai did with The Great Believers.

 

I love the cover of Stork Bite. Can you share how you came up with that?

Isn’t the cover beautiful? Actually, Kay, you had more than a little to do with that cover design. What I mean by that is you gave me a very good steer toward Kristie Koontz, your cover designer for Dead Man’s Watch. I contacted Kristie and we had a Zoom meeting to discuss the book and what I was looking for in a cover. I wanted an image of a stork and a cover that evoked a low country, Southern feeling. I had even gone as far as purchasing an image on Shutterstock and playing around with it myself.

I sent what I had done to Kristie, thinking she would dress it up and make it better. Kristie asked if I was open to something different if she came up with it. Of course I was! Soon she sent me back a few much-improved versions of my work and a design she had come up with on her own. There was no contest. I loved Kristie’s original design and it became the cover for Stork Bite. Incidentally, the stork image I bought from Shutterstock became a tiny icon on the spine of the print edition. Kristie suggested that little detail.

 

Did you find writing a second novel was as difficult as the first? If so, in what ways?

Stork Bite was more difficult to write than All In. For starters, Stork Bite has five POV characters versus All In’s one POV character.

I had to do a lot of research for Stork Bite too because so much of the novel takes place in a time before I was born. My research for Stork Bite was like an iceberg in that most of it never made it into the book. I spent hours upon hours on the internet and reading books, researching Shreveport’s history, Centenary College, Mooretown, Texas Avenue, Caddo Lake, the Klan, 1930s fashions and music and aircraft, bootlegging, Hot Springs, Irish gangsters, Al Capone, World War 1, Hurricane Audrey, cotton farming and ginning, and more. I have a 91-year-old friend whose family cotton farmed in Arkansas using horse-drawn plows when he was a boy. His memories of their life then were a great help.

Figuring out the structure of Stork Bite was a real challenge, requiring draft after draft of revisions and resequencing. I’m not just talking about how to position David Walker’s story, but how to sequence the chapters in the Shreveport section of the book to create a smooth narrative flow.

 

Why did you decide to enter your work into writing contests?

I entered for the added exposure. I felt that book contests were a necessary part of my marketing strategy. I entered Stork Bite in several contests, including the Texas Institute of Letters, the Eric Hoffer Awards, the IPPY Awards, and the Writers Digest Self-Published Book Awards. The IPPY Awards issued Stork Bite a bronze medal in the Best Regional Fiction – South category. That was a very nice honor, and I have some pretty stickers to put on print copies.

I want to remind your Craft of Fiction audience that The Watch on The Fencepost received an honorable mention in Mystery and Crime Fiction from the Eric Hoffer Awards, which was a very, very nice honor for an exceptionally well-crafted novel.

I vetted the contests as best I could. There are plenty of contests out there, but I only entered the ones that met two criteria: 1) Stork Bite seemed like a good fit, and 2) winning might bring the novel some recognition or credibility.

 

How concerned should new authors be about winning an award for their books?

In my opinion, not very much because you don’t have any control over winning. There are so many variables, not the least of which are the personal tastes of the judges. If you enter a contest that you think your book has a good chance of winning and it doesn’t, there’s probably value in examining the books that did win. What’s special about them? What stands out? What, if anything, can you learn from them?

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

If you want to be read, learn to write for others, not only for yourself. I believe the more we learn to edit the self-indulgence out of our work, in other words “murder our darlings,” the more we’ll be in a position to broaden our audience.

There’s a wonderful book titled, Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings. The author did a tremendous amount of research into the Inklings, who were Tolkien’s and Lewis’s critique group. One thing she discovered was that J.R.R. Tolkien wore his buddies out by reading ad nauseam every week about hobbits and elves and Middle Earth. Had it not been for C.S. Lewis convincing his dear friend to edit, Tolkien’s work might never have been published. Wouldn’t that have been a great loss?

Getting the self-indulgence out of our work requires an objective, unsentimental approach to revision. I think maybe that’s why so many writing teachers and coaches recommend letting a first draft cool off for a period of time before editing.

 

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a novel that I hope will snag some new readers. My first two novels focused on questions that I personally wanted to explore. In that sense, I wrote those books for myself first and foremost. With this third novel, I’m focusing on reader enjoyment rather than exploring life’s big questions. I’m trying to write quick scenes with plenty of humor and some suspense too. (Hopefully!) The target audience are readers who want a clean read—no language or other elements that might offend. The characters in the novel are Christians, so there is an opportunity to show the day-to-day life of a young Christian couple and their children.

This novel will be genre fiction. I’d call it Christian suspense. Something James Patterson said in his MasterClass really stuck with me. He advised writers to never condescend to the genre. I love that because it blasts away the highfalutin idea that only literary work contains great writing. Genre fiction can and should have great writing too.

I won’t tell you the title because it’s a working title that may not stick. But I do have a name for you to remember: Freddie Funderburk. Hopefully, you’ll see that name again. And again.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Please visit my website. www.lksimonds.com

There you can find links to purchase my novels and to my social media. For years, I’ve written little essays called Leaves of Grace. You can get to those from my website too, or visit www.melissakaysimonds.com for a direct link.

 

Thanks again, Lisa, for being with us.

It was my pleasure, Kay!

 

STORK BITE with author Lisa Simonds Share on X

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — SEPTEMBER 2021

The Plot Whisperer

 

“Why is writing important? Because it teaches you about yourself, expands your horizons, and challenges you to discover new truths.”

That is the very first paragraph of Chapter One in Martha Alderson’s book The Plot Whisperer.

If you’re like me, you’re probably nodding your head up and down in eager agreement because those two sentences resonate with what you’ve discovered about yourself as a writer.

Once I began reading The Plot Whisperer, I knew I wanted to explore more of what Martha Alderson had to say about writing, so it is with great pleasure that I welcome Martha as my guest today on the Craft of Writing blog.

 

 

      ***

 

 

Martha Alderson, MA, is the author of the bestselling The Plot Whisperer. She writes novels for readers, plots books for writers, and most recently a workbook for anyone looking to enrich their lives with more creativity and inspiration. Martha has been exploring and writing about the Universal Story for the past twenty years as part of the plot support she offers to writers. She first introduced the Universal Story in The Plot Whisperer to transform writers’ creative lives and to “show” plot. More recently, she has expanded her work to include helping people transform their creative lives.

 

TWEETABLE:

THE PLOT WHISPERER with Martha Alderson Share on X

 

***

Welcome to the Craft of Writing blog, Martha Alderson. Thank you for joining us!

Thank you for inviting me and for the opportunity to share my passion with your followers.

 

Tell us about your writing journey. Why did you decide to write books on the craft of writing?

I started writing fiction on a lark after having sold my speech, language, and learning disability clinic for children. Quickly, I stumbled over plot. As I analyzed literally hundreds of novels, memoirs, and screenplays for plot, I started sharing what I was learning with my writing friends. That quickly led to a writing gig at the University of California Santa Cruz. This was all long ago when plot wasn’t something covered in creative writing classes. Now, there are loads of books on plot but that wasn’t the case back then. Find a need and fill it. I independently published my first book on plot that’s now published by Penguin Random House as Writing Blockbuster Plots. Quite a thrill indeed! From that first plot book evolved my bestselling The Plot Whisperer book.

 

In The Plot Whisperer, you talk about the Universal Story. Can you define what you mean by that?

The Universal Story is an energetic pathway that is at the heart of every great transformational journey in stories and in life. An understanding of the Universal Story helps you better direct the flow of your story and connect you to your creative promise.

 

I noticed in your book that you describe two approaches to writing: the left-brain, analytical approach and the right-brain, intuitive approach. Can you describe each of these? Do they present different challenges for the author?

Plot is a linear, organized sequence of events affected by cause and effect. Thanks to my background in special education, I appreciate that we all learn differently. The longer I taught plot, the more clearly emerged two major types of writers. Some writers quickly pick up the concept of plot. Others struggle and feel stifled. For ease, I divide the two groups into left-brain, analytical and right-brain, intuitive. Those who grasp plot easily – left-brain dominant versus those who don’t – right-brain dominant.

 

Can you explain what a Plot Planner is and why it helps define the overall plot?

The Plot Planner replicates the energy of Universal Story and highlights the essential Energetic Markers in every great story. Creating a Plot Planner for your story allows you to step away from all the words and “see” your plot from beginning to end. It allows you to evaluate the sequence of your scene placement and the cause and effect at play.

 

Why is it important to develop a Scene Tracker when writing a novel?

A Scene Tracker allows you to analyze your scenes based on the 7 essential elements in every great scene.

 

How important is it for the novelist to show transformation in the main character?

If all the drama and excitement, conflict and suspense, mystery and romance in your story doesn’t affect your protagonist on a deep emotional level, what’s the point of your story? In other words, characters grow and change because of what happens from the beginning to the end of your story.

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

Understand that writing a novel from beginning to end takes you on an epic journey. You’ll learn as much about yourself as you do about stories the longer you write. Keep going. Trust the process.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

MarthaAlderson.com

@MarthaAlderson (FB)

@MarthaSAlderson (Instagram)

@PlotWhisperer (FB, Twitter, Instagram)

 

Thank you, Martha, for being with us today.

You’re more than welcome, Kay!

 

THE PLOT WHISPERER with Martha Alderson Share on X

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — AUGUST 2021

NOW and THEN and ALWAYS

 

I’m excited that multi-award-winning author Melissa Tagg appears on the Craft of Writing Blog this month for the first time.

We don’t talk a lot about Romance novels here, so this is our chance to jump into that genre and learn some of the secrets of great romance writing. Melissa’s novel Now and Then and Always won the 2020 Christy Award for Contemporary Romance.

 

 

      ***

 

Melissa Tagg is the USA Today bestselling, Christy and Carol Award-winning author of swoony and hope-filled small-town contemporary romances. She’s also a former reporter, current nonprofit marketing strategist, and total Iowa girl.

Melissa has taught at multiple national writing conferences, as well as workshops and women’s retreats. When she’s not happily lost in someone else’s book or plugging away at her own, she can be found spoiling her nieces and nephews, watching old movies, and daydreaming about her next fictional hero. Connect with Melissa at melissatagg.com.

 

TWEETABLE:

NOW and THEN and ALWAYS with Melissa Tagg Share on X

 

***

Welcome Melissa and thank you for joining us!

Thank you for having me!

 

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Please tell us about your journey to becoming an author.

Oh yes, I can honestly say I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I’ve just always loved stories…always, always. As a kid, I wrote a ridiculous number of stories in Mead 5-Star notebooks and, thankfully, I had the kind of parents and grandparents who read my stories and fueled my dreams with endless encouragement. I attended my first weekend writing retreat in 2009 and my first national conference in 2010, and those two things really helped me hunker down and get serious about completing a novel.

The story of how I got published, though, is wonderfully random (or perhaps not random at all considering I’m pretty convinced God opened the doors). An editor at Bethany House happened to come across my blog in early 2012 and contacted me out of the blue. She asked if I had any manuscripts in the works and I sent her two proposals. That summer, I signed with an agent, and about a month later, signed my first contract.

I love telling that story to other writers as a way of reminding them that sometimes we can do ALL the things people tell us to do—go to conferences and pitch to agents and editors and be everywhere on social media and enter contests and thing after thing—and yet, the open door we’re waiting for might be in a hallway we never even thought to walk down! I’d never pitched to a Bethany House editor, never figured I wrote the kind of books that might be attractive to them. It’s encouraging to me to remember that our dreams aren’t nearly as dependent on what WE do as what God can do. That doesn’t mean we don’t do the work and chase the dream…but it takes the pressure off to realize at the end of the day, the best open doors are the ones He flings open.

 

Can you give us a brief synopsis of Now and Then and Always?

Last year, after traumatic circumstances forced her from her job as a nanny, Mara Bristol finally found a place to belong–the winsome Everwood Bed & Breakfast at the edge of Maple Valley, Iowa. For months, she’s helped its owner, Lenora, maintain the ramshackle property despite their shortage of guests. But when Lenora fails to return from a month-long trip and the bank threatens foreclosure, Mara worries she’s once again alone . . . abandoned . . . about to lose the only true home she’s ever known.

Detective Marshall Hawkins is no closer to whole today than he was two years ago . . . the day his daughter died. Between his divorce, debilitating migraines, and a dependence on medication, his life is falling apart. And when a reckless decision on the job propels him into administrative leave, he has no other plan but to get in his truck and drive. A one-night stay at the Everwood was supposed to be just that. But there’s something about the old house–or maybe its intriguing caretaker–that pulls him in.

Together, Mara and Marshall set out to save the Everwood. But its secrets run deeper than they could’ve imagined. As they renovate the house and search for its missing owner, they’ll each confront the pain that brought them to the Everwood in the first place . . . and just maybe discover a faith and love to help them carry on.

 

What made you decide to write that book?

A couple of things: First, this story features an eerie old B&B that first appeared in one of my older books. It was just a brief appearance in that book but I knew as I described it that one day I wanted to set a whole book there.

And then the second thing that propelled me into this book, and really, the series as a whole, was the fun collection of side characters from previous books who I just knew were waiting for the spotlight. None of them were all that connected, but they’d shown up in past books individually and grabbed ahold of my heart for one reason or another. So when it was time to start a new series, I thought, hmm, what if I could take all these characters I love—characters with intriguing backstories that I simply haven’t had a chance to explore yet—and found some reason to pull them all together into a makeshift family? That’s where the spark of this story and its series came from.

 

What is the secret to being a great romance writer?

I think I could answer this question in so many ways, but as I think about it, I think one of the most vital keys to writing a great romance is knowing your WHY/WHY NOT for your hero and heroine and making sure those WHYs and WHY NOTs carry equal weight. What are the reasons your hero and heroine belong together? What are the reasons they don’t? What are their competing values?

To me, it’s that WHY/WHY NOT that adds wonderful tension to a romance. I think a lot of people mistake conflict for tension—they throw random conflicts at their characters, have them butt heads repeatedly, and while that might make for some nice banter and a good read, to me, it’s the tension and depth that takes it to a great read. And you find that tension in threading your WHYs and WHY NOTs through the story so that there’s a captivating push and pull for the reader.

 

Why did you decide to enter your work into writing contests?

You know, that’s a good question. I think after I was first published, I began entering contests just because I felt like that’s what I was supposed to do. Haha! Prior to being published, I entered contests for not-yet-published writers as a way to receive feedback from agents and editors and that was so helpful! But most of the contests I’ve entered post-publication don’t offer that kind of feedback. One of the reasons I continue to enter (though I don’t enter nearly as many as I used to) is because sometimes when you final, it’s a nice way of reaching new readers. It’s also simply just fun and affirming when a book does well in a contest.

But with the Christy Award specifically, that one was just a dream-come-true for me. I was in high school when that contest first began and as a young person who’d read the book it’s named after (Christy by Catherine Marshall) probably already five times by then, that contest just felt like a far-off dream that I held on to for many, many years.

 

There are an enormous number of writing contests available. Do you have any guidance on how an author should go about deciding which contests to enter?

I think one of the most important things to consider before entering a contest is who the judges are. If you’re pre-published, it’s so helpful to look for contests where the judges are agents or editors, especially editors who work for a publisher you’d like to land a contract with, or authors you look up to and admire. And then on the other side, I really appreciate contests where there’s a nice mix of judges—librarians, reviewers, bookstore owners, and avid readers…with a few authors or industry professionals mixed in, too. I like knowing it’s not only peers serving as judges, but people who represent who I’m actually writing the book for—readers.

Oh, an additional note for entering contests as a pre-published writer: I highly suggest looking for one where you get great feedback and suggestions from the judges. Some contests will only give you a number score, but others really strive to help you improve your book.

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

This isn’t going to be all that tangible, but it’s something I needed when I was a new writer and I still need it now—and that is, remember WHY you write. Write it down, even. Put it on a post-it note and attach it to your laptop if you need to. There are so many things that can come along with this journey, both good and bad, and it’s so easy to get tangled up in those things, to get overwhelmed or compare yourself to others, and in the process, forget why you started writing in the first place. Hold on to your Why. Hold on to your love of stories. Hold on to those first story sparks that grabbed hold of you when you first started working on your current manuscript and use them as kindling whenever your story flames start to flicker out.

 

What are you working on now?

I’ve got a new three-book series in the works that I’m oh-so-excited about! The first book is called Autumn by the Sea and it releases on September 28. While I get ready to market and promote that release, I’m also drafting the second book in the series, A Seaside Wonder. Like my other books, these are contemporary romances that take place in a small town. Unlike my other books, they take place in Maine and there’s an overarching mystery threaded through all three books, plus individual mysteries in each story. I’m having a blast!

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

The easiest places to catch up with me are on Instagram (@melissatagg) and Facebook (@authormelissatagg) and on my website (melissatagg.com).

 

Thanks again, Melissa, for being with us.

 

 

NOW and THEN and ALWAYS with Melissa Tagg Share on X

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — JULY 2021

VISION AND REVISION

One of the great things about hosting the Craft of Writing blog is getting to meet so many accomplished professionals, and I’m thrilled to welcome craft expert Jodie Renner to the blog for the first time.

I titled this blog interview VISION AND REVISION since we’ll be talking about Jodie’s award-winning book Fire Up Your Fiction. Much of that book has to do with revising your first draft. However, it’s also a wonderful guide to read *before* you start that new novel.

So grab your literary blowtorch and let’s add some spark to our stories.

 

 

      ***

 

Jodie Renner is a sought-after freelance fiction editor and award-winning author of three Editor’s Guides to Writing Compelling Fiction, WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, FIRE UP YOUR FICTION, and CAPTIVATE YOUR READERS; as well as two QUICK CLICKS e-resources for writers and editors, SPELLING LIST and WORD USAGE. She has also organized and edited two anthologies for charity, VOICES FROM THE VALLEYS – Stories & Poems about Life in BC’s Interior, and CHILDHOOD REGAINED – Stories of Hope for Asian Child Workers.

When she’s not editing, writing, blogging, or reading novels, Jodie loves to pursue her three other passions, dancing, photography and traveling. She has traveled extensively throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East, and hopes to get away again soon to continue her explorations.

 

TWEETABLE:

VISION AND REVISION with Jodie Renner Share on X

 

By the way, Jodie is also appearing today on The Kill Zone Blog. After you read (and comment on) the interview here, hop over to TKZ and take a look at her post entitled “Hook Your Readers with a Compelling Storyline, Tagline, & Back Cover Copy.” Lots of useful information.

***

Welcome to the Craft of Writing blog, Jodie Renner. Thank you for joining us!

Thanks so much for inviting me, Kay. I’m honored to be in the same company as some of my favorite writing craft gurus – James Scott Bell, Randy Ingermanson, Steven James, K.M. Weiland, Renni Browne, and Dave King, among others.

 

How important is the revision process when writing a novel?

The revision process is an indispensable step in the creation of an engrossing novel or short story. Of course, first, it’s important to just write with wild abandon. Get your ideas down without thinking about word choice or making the sentences perfect. But then, once you’ve written your first draft (or are at a point where your muse is taking a break), it’s time to go back and reread, revise, and polish.

Did you use the best word there? Would a different word choice bring the scene to life more vividly? Have you varied your sentence structure and included short, medium, and long sentences? Look at pacing. Are you keeping readers interested and intrigued? Is your writing bland or rambling and repetitive in places? It may be time to do some weeding and tighten it up by deleting excessive words, combining and shortening sentences, etc. Are some of your paragraphs too long? Condense them or break them up for more white space. Have you included a balance of narration and dialogue, not too much of one or the other?

Read your dialogue out loud. Does it sound natural, like that character would actually speak? Or stilted, too correct, overly wordy, or more like the author would speak? In dialogue, cut many of those complete sentences down to a few words or even one word or a silence.

And of course, there are macro issues that may need to be considered, such as premise, plot, characterization, point of view, pacing, inconsistencies, discrepancies, and more. As writers, we’re too close to our work, so we don’t see what might confuse others. Often a fresh set of eyes will help with those.

 

How important is it for an author to work with a professional editor?

If you’re serious about getting your book published, selling well, and garnering great reviews, it’s essential. But never send an editor your first draft. You run the risk of having it rejected, or the editor could get bogged down on correcting basic errors and won’t have time to address bigger issues and really take it up several notches. Go through your manuscript several times, fine-tuning and polishing. Also, read writing craft books, as there may be several important fiction-writing techniques you’re not even aware of or have not yet mastered; for example, head-hopping, showing instead of telling, and info dumps.

Then try to find some volunteer beta readers (savvy, discerning readers who read in your genre; best to avoid family and close friends, who may not feel comfortable telling you what they really think) to go through your short story or novel to give you feedback on where the story lags, where it excites them, where they were confused, etc. You may know some grammar nerds who can help you with spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure, too. That would actually be a good first step, so your other beta readers aren’t distracted by grammatical errors and typos.

 

In Fire Up Your Fiction, you point out many areas where authors need to revise their first draft. As an experienced editor, what’s the most common mistake you see authors make?

New authors typically want to “tell” too much, explain too much, as the author or an omniscient narrator. Try to stay out of the story and let the characters interact in a natural way. Get in the point of view, the head and body, of your main character right from the start, and stay in the protagonist’s viewpoint for most of the story, only showing what he perceives and his physical, sensory, and emotional reactions to what’s happening around him. This provides the intimacy that today’s readers crave and brings the scene to life. And when you’re not in the viewpoint of the protagonist, you should be in the POV of another important character, like the love interest or the antagonist. Stay out of the head of minor characters unless it’s a critical scene where a major character is not present.

Don’t step back and explain things as the author/narrator. Avoid any kind of info dumps or backstory dumps. Just let the characters tell the story. Work in other details gradually and briefly, in a natural way as the story unfolds. Don’t stop to explain anything in a neutral paragraph to the readers. That takes the readers out of the story, away from the intimacy of the character, and is distracting and even annoying.

Here’s an example of “show, don’t tell”: Telling: He was overweight and obviously didn’t look after himself.” Showing: “He was pear-shaped, potbellied, and smoked constantly, even though one of his lungs had already been surgically removed.” – James Lee Burke, Heartwood.

Along the same lines, resist the temptation to tell readers all about the protagonist’s background early in the novel. Keep the readers intrigued and turning the pages to find out more by hinting at secrets, regrets, and other critical background info and revealing it in tidbits as you go along.

 

You recommend deep POV when writing in third-person. Can you explain the advantages to taking this approach?

Most popular fiction today uses first-person POV, close third-person point of view, or even deep POV, as opposed to the classics of 100 years ago or more, which were usually written in omniscient. Today’s readers want to identify immediately with the main character, to see what they see and feel what they feel. This approach engages the readers emotionally, makes them bond with the protagonist, and keeps them turning the pages, which is what they and you want.

Using this method, you start out your story in the head and body of your lead character and stay there for most of the novel. You show the setting and other characters from their point of view, including their physical sensations, thoughts, feelings, and reactions. Don’t zoom out and show that character from the outside, as the author or an omniscient narrator. That breaks the spell and can be off-putting to today’s readers, who prefer the more intimate approach. You may decide to show a scene or chapter from another character’s viewpoint, but be sure it’s an important character, and don’t head-hop back and forth.

 

I loved reading your recommendation to provide factual information by using attitude. Can you describe that method?

If you feel the need to impart some information to the readers to help them understand something better, don’t do it in a block, like an essay or lecture or nonfiction book. Work in only the necessary facts, briefly and in a more natural way, preferably through a dialogue with questions and answers or some kind of disagreement, or one character explaining to another, but not in long paragraphs. Break it up with interaction, maybe with some initial confusion or misunderstanding, then some disagreement or questioning. That makes it livelier and not like you’ve interrupted your story as the author to present a mini-lecture on the topic. That’s jarring and doesn’t feel authentic. And it takes the reader out of the story world, which you definitely don’t want. Stay in the character’s point of view. Let the characters tell the story!

For more on this topic, including examples and detailed tips on how to achieve this, see my blog post, “Need to Add Info to Your Story? Use Lots of Attitude!”

 

Do you have a preference between plotting and pantsing? Will your books help authors who use either one of those approaches?

Each author chooses the approach that works best for them – outlining first or “writing by the seat of their pants.” “Pantsing” often requires more extensive editing later, but plotting can feel restrictive to some writers. Both methods will produce a first draft that will then benefit from my books. The advantage of my three writing guides is that they are written for busy authors who want to quickly find what they’re looking for and get back to writing their novel or short story. I’ve made them all reader-friendly and easily scannable, with lots of bolded subheadings and before-and-after examples, so the information is really easy to find, read, and apply.

 

How important is it for an author to read other books in his/her genre?

If you want to succeed and sell lots of books, it’s critical to read a variety of best-selling novels in your genre. Analyze the techniques of the popular authors to find out why readers love them and post great reviews about their books. Study their first pages especially, and how they introduce the main character (usually right away, in his/her viewpoint) and handle dialogue and backstory or flashbacks. How do they hook you right from the start, keep you intrigued, and make you care about the characters? How do they keep you guessing and slowly dole out bits of critical information and secrets?

 

Your writing guides have won awards, and you’ve also acted as a judge for writing contests. Do you have any advice for new writers entering their short story or novel into a contest?

Yes, I’ve judged for many writing contests, including several times for Writer’s Digest. Right now, I’m busy judging the first 10 pages of unpublished novels for Page Turner Awards. My advice as a judge? Make sure you’ve revised and edited your work several times. Read it out loud or have Word’s “text to speech” app read it aloud to you. Get several volunteer beta readers to give you feedback. After your third or fourth revision, change the font to something visually different, make it single-spaced and 6”x9”, like a book, print it up (or put it on your phone or tablet), and read it in a different location, preferably away from your home. Make notes and revise again.

Get it edited and proofread. Your first few pages have to be stellar – polished to a shine. A boring or confusing beginning or grammatical and spelling errors are an instant turn-off. Judges often have hundreds of entries to pare down to their top ten, so they’re looking for reasons to quickly reject any non-contenders. When I have hundreds to read and assess, I reject obviously weak ones after reading only the first few paragraphs, which is what agents do all the time. Remember, these are contests and they’re looking for “la crème de la crème” for their awards. If they gave an award to a story with numerous careless errors, especially in the first pages, the organization would be laughed at.

For a checklist of judges’ criteria for submissions of stories and novels, go to: How Will Your Story Rate in a Contest? Evaluation Criteria.

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

Don’t be in a rush to publish your novel or send it off to agents. Be sure to go through it several times, then get some volunteer beta readers to go through it and give you their impressions. Then, if you can afford a professional editor, that would be invaluable. Agents and small publishers are flooded with submissions, so the slightest off-putting issue (wordiness, repetition, bland characters, stilted dialogue, not enough intrigue or tension, typos, punctuation errors, bloopers, etc.) will quickly land your story in the “rejects” pile. And if you rush to self-publish your novel before it’s vetted by others and revised and polished, you run the risk of getting a lot of negative reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and those reviews stay there forever. The only way to get them to go away is to unpublish your book. Then you’d have to publish a revised version with a different title and a new ISBN.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

You can visit my website, https://www.JodieRenner.com, my Amazon Author Page at https://www.amazon.com/Jodie-Renner/e/B008H80AIE, or my blog, https://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/, which has been offering free advice on a variety of topics for writers since 2010.

 

Thank you, Jodie, for being with us today.

I’m honored that you invited me, Kay. Thank you. Love your blog!

 

 

TWEETABLE:

VISION AND REVISION with Jodie Renner Share on X

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — JUNE 2021

I am thrilled to welcome award-winning author and craft expert Steven James to The Craft of Writing blog today.

Steven is a member of that prestigious group known as the Christy Award Hall-of-Famers. Not only has he won numerous writing awards for his novels, he is well-known for his expertise on the craft of writing. And he hosts a weekly podcast, “The Story Blender.” (Where does he get the time?) I was doubly thrilled to see that he’s a runner.

Not knowing which of his many works to discuss here, I’ve chosen two: Synapse, his latest novel, is a near-future thriller. It received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and was a finalist for an International Book Award.  I picked Story Trumps Structure to represent his work on the art of fiction writing. I expect we can have a lively discussion today.

 

 

          

 

***

 

 

Steven James is the critically-acclaimed author of seventeen novels whose award-winning, pulse-pounding thrillers continue to gain wide critical acclaim and a growing fan base. Publishers Weekly calls him a “master storyteller at the peak of his game,” and RT Book Reviews promises that “the nail-biting suspense will rivet you.”

Equipped with a unique Master’s Degree in Storytelling, he has taught writing and storytelling on four continents over the past two decades and has spoken more than two thousand times at events spanning the globe. Widely-recognized for his story-crafting expertise, he teaches regularly as a Master Class instructor at ThrillerFest, North America’s premier training event for suspense writers. His short fiction has appeared in many publications including the New York Times.

Steven also hosts the weekly podcast, The Story Blender, on which he interviews some of the world’s leading writers and storytellers. His groundbreaking books on the art of fiction writing, STORY TRUMPS STRUCTURE and TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR NOVEL, both won Storytelling World Awards.

When Steven isn’t writing or speaking you’ll find him trail running, playing basketball, or drinking dark roast coffee near his home in the Appalachian Highlands of eastern Tennessee.

 

TWEETABLE:

STORY TRUMPS STRUCTURE with Steven James Share on X

 

 

***

Welcome to the Craft of Writing blog, Steven James, and thank you for joining us!

Thank you for having me.

 

First, can you tell us a little about yourself. How did you get started writing fiction? Was that always your goal?

I have always loved stories that transport me to another place. When I was young, my uncle would always tell us stories whenever we got together for holidays. When I started working at a councilor at summer camps after my senior year of high school, I was looking for a way to calm the campers down for bed and started telling my uncle’s stories. One Saturday, in between camp sessions while I was sitting in a laundromat, it struck me: I want to be a storyteller. That’s what I want to do with my life. I began telling stories everywhere I could and writing short stories and personal stories from my life.

But I always had this dream of writing a bigger story. A novel. I approached my publisher who was doing my nonfiction books, asked them about the possibility of writing a novel, and I said in my slightly whiney voice, “Do I have to write the whole thing first?” They said, “Well, we’re familiar with your other work. Just send us the first fifty pages.” From that, they offered me a three-book deal, and I was off and running as a novelist.

 

Can you tell us about your latest novel, Synapse?  How did you come about writing that book?

I guess I would have to say that my love of science fiction led me to ask this question: Once machines have free will, what will they choose to believe? So my story revolved around a robot who has self-awareness, consciousness, and free will, but is forming his own belief system. Throw those questions into a thriller with a terrorist plot that takes place thirty years from now, and you have the genesis of Synapse.

 

I read that you have a Master’s Degree in Storytelling. I had never heard of that before. Can you tell us how you decided to pursue that degree and what’s entailed in it?

Yes, when I started the program in 1996, it was the only Master’s Degree in Storytelling program in the world. East Tennessee State University offered the degree. Although it mostly focused on oral storytelling, I was able to study story in a broader context. What makes a story work, whether it’s written or told, and how I can help others shape and tell stories of their own. You should see the looks on some people’s faces when I tell them that I have a Master’s Degree in storytelling.

 

How and why did you decide to write books about the art and craft of writing?

As I was learning to write, I kept coming across the same advice over and over about outlining, following a three-act structure, plotting out your story, and so on, none of which I did and none of which worked for me. I started looking for books that would equip me to write my stories more organically, and honestly couldn’t find anything, so I decided to write Story Trumps Structure to help other organic writers – and really novelists of all stripes – by telling them to break the “rules.”

 

I’ve been reading your book Story Trumps Structure, and you take a different approach to constructing a novel than many other craft experts. Can you give a brief synopsis of your theory of novel-writing?

Story is pursuit. Asking questions that relate to the characters’ unmet desires and the actions they take in pursuit of their goals. This is what shapes a story. On a very elemental level, stories consist of four things: characters, settings, struggles, and pursuits. Without a character, there’s no one for readers to cheer for in the story. Without a setting, there’s no way for readers to picture a story. Without a struggle, there’s no reason for the story, and without a pursuit, there’s no movement to the story. Plot is simply the pathway that a character takes through the setting as he faces struggles during his pursuit. So this is why I encourage authors not to focus on plot, but rather on pursuit.

 

Congratulations on the many awards you’ve won for your work. How concerned should new authors be about winning an award for their books?

Awards don’t pay for groceries! They’re encouraging, but not necessary.

 

There are an enormous number of writing contests available. Do you have any guidance on how an author should go about deciding which contests to enter?

Regarding contests, I would do my research to find out specifically what types of books or stories that contest is looking for. I’d advise against spending a lot of time re-writing a story for a specific contest, but if it’s a good fit already, fantastic! Also, don’t spend a lot of money submitting to different contests. It’s just not worth it in the long run.

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

Strive for excellence. Rage against mediocrity. Don’t allow your work to be published if it’s anything less than your best.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

For all things Steven James, click to stevenjames.net or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @readstevenjames.

 

Okay, I figured out how to get the subject of running into this interview: It’s been shown that aerobic exercise increases creativity.  Tell us about your running experiences. Do you compete?

If competing means losing: yes, I do compete.

I live at the base of the Appalachian mountains, and there are tons of amazing trails close by. I did run a couple of 50k trail races a number of years ago. I loved the experience, but they were stinkin’ hard. We’ll see if I ever join one again. Perhaps someday.

 

Thank you, Steven, for being with us today.

Thank you for inviting me! Best wishes to you and all your readers in your creative endeavors.

 

TWEETABLE:

STORY TRUMPS STRUCTURE with Steven James. Share on X

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — MAY 2021

 

I am honored to welcome Steve Laube back to the Craft of Writing blog today.

Steve is president and founder of The Steve Laube Agency and a veteran of the bookselling industry. As president of The Christian Writers Institute, he publishes the annual Christian Writers Market Guide (also available online).

He also wrote and published a must-have work for aspiring authors: Book Proposal Tips and Tricks. In addition, Steve is the owner and President of Enclave Publishing one of the premier publishers of Christian fantasy and science fiction.

 

***

 

Steve Laube, a literary agent and president of The Steve Laube Agency, has been in the book industry for 40 years, first as a bookstore manager where he was awarded the National Store of the Year by the Christian Booksellers Association. He then spent over a decade with Bethany House Publishers and was named the Editor of the Year. He later founded his own Literary Agency, has represented over 2,000 new books, and was named Agent of the Year. His office is in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, he was inducted into the Grand Canyon University Alumni Hall-of-Fame by their Department of Theology.

 

***

A Conversation with Steve Laube Share on X

 

Welcome Steve Laube and thank you for joining us!

 

Can you give us an update on the current state of the publishing industry?

Nothing has really changed in the last year. Great books are still being contracted.

The only pressure, especially in non-fiction, is the need for the author to have a substantial platform from which to launch the book.

 

The Christian Writers Market Guide is an enormously popular book for Christian authors. When did you decide to produce it?

It has been around for a long time. Originally put together by Sally Stuart, she sold it to Jerry Jenkins in 2010. Jerry produced it for five years, then in 2016 I approached him to see if I could take it over and fold it into The Christian Writers Institute. The timing was perfect. Jerry still provides a new foreword for the book each year.

 

Tell us a little about the different sections of The Christian Writers Market Guide and what benefits authors can gain from it.

Those sections change with the times. We have one section for traditional publishers and another for independent publishing. That way you can know which are designed for those who self-publish. We also added a section on podcasts that help writers.

There are about 70 pages worth of information on freelance editors who can help writers.

Someone said, “Can’t I just get all that info on Google.” My answer, “Do you trust Mr. Google to have your best interests in mind?” Hah! We, in essence, curate the best options for you so you don’t have to wade through those who spend money to get their listing ahead of someone else’s. We don’t charge to be listed in the Guide. That keeps that motivation out of the equation.

We also have an online version for only $10 a year. (www.christianwritersmarketguide.com) This site is everything you see in the print guide, but is updated throughout the year.

 

You are also president of Enclave Publishing. Can you tell us a little about that publishing company?

Enclave is a small press dedicated to publishing a dozen new hardcover releases a year. But we only do speculative fiction, meaning science fiction and fantasy.

www.enclavepublishing.com

We have a number of award winning authors who write for us. If you or anyone you know like this genre, ours is a place where you know you will find books from authors who have a Christian worldview.

Our guiding directive is “To publish out-of-this-world stories that are informed by a coherent theology.”

 

This year we’re looking at the role awards play in an author’s career. How concerned should new authors be about winning an award for their books?

Concerned? No. Happy if it happens? Yes.
The above mentioned Jerry Jenkins didn’t win a Christy award for best fiction for many years after the famous Left Behind books were published. A lack of a prestigious award didn’t hurt sales.

 

Are awards a way for a new author to be recognized?

It can help. I know I look at those who have won the top level of awards. There are so many that one should know if the award is from a local chapter of six writers who pick the best among their group every year or if it is a national award where the top books in the industry are judged against each other.

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

Keep learning.
If you think, “I don’t need to take another class on craft” you are probably wrong. Even veterans are looking for that tip that keeps their edge sharp.

 

If you could recommend one book other than your own on the craft of writing, what would it be?

One that isn’t about craft but is something just as crucial: The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman (University of Chicago Press: 2018)

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Subscribe to our agency’s blog. www.stevelaube.com. We will put something in front of you nearly each day of the week. You’ll get at least 150 posts a year that you can read about various aspects of the industry and craft. And get to know the personalities of our agents in the agency.

 

Thanks again, Steve, for being with us.

 

A Conversation with Steve Laube Share on X

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — APRIL 2021

I’m excited that author David Rawlings appears on the Craft of Writing Blog this month for the first time.

David’s novel The Baggage Handler won the 2019 Christy First Novel Award. What better person to discuss writing and awards for new authors?

Note: Since David is in Australia, his responses to your questions and comments may not appear on the blog until late in the afternoon of April 5, so please be patient.

 

 

***

 

David Rawlings is a Christian author with books published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing in the USA.

He is the first Australian author to win the prestigious Christy Award for Christian fiction – Best First Novel of 2019 with The Baggage Handler. A writer of modern-day parables, David writes stories that take readers deeper into life, posing questions of them to explore their own values, faith and how they approach life.

David is a multiple finalist in the American Christian Fiction Awards and Oregon Christian Writers’ Cascade Awards. He is based in Adelaide, South Australia with 30 years experience in communication, ranging from journalism to the corporate sector. He has worked in Australia, South-East Asia and Hong Kong and has always paid the bills with words. He is also a sports-mad father-of-three who reads everything within an arm’s reach and always – always – makes sure his text messages are grammatically correct.

 

Who is The Baggage Handler? Share on X

 

 

***

 

Welcome David Rawlings and thank you for joining us!

You’re welcome Kay, it’s a pleasure to join you all the way from Australia. I hope you can hear my accent coming out through my typing.

 

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Please tell us about your journey to becoming an author.

Yes. My Mum used to say that the minute I could hold a pen… I did. Ever since I was 6, I wanted to write for a living. Back then that meant a dream of being a journalist, working in sports, a gig that was my first job as a graduated journalist back in the 1990s.

Then as I moved into corporate copywriting, I put the dream of writing my own stories on the backburner until I had enough time, money, margin in my life – whatever. I thought I’d get to it one day, so I just stockpiled all the ideas I had until I had a folder with about 50 storylines in it.

That one day arrived in 2015 and I felt challenged by God to dust off the dream and trust Him for the rest. So I started writing fiction. The next year I submitted my first manuscript – a story about reality TV and churches – to a number of American writing competitions, confident that as I was doing what I was called to do, I should do well.

I didn’t even reach the semi-finalist stage.

It was a hard lesson, but an important one. The judges in the competitions wondered about my ability to write, with one judge posing the question that the school system had failed me. After writing for a living for 25 years in corporate Australia, that was a slap in the face. But I realized why they thought that: I was writing as an Australian (with our UK spelling, grammar and phrasing) for an American marketplace. So I took myself back to the drawing board and learned the US equivalent. I had to do more than type with an American accent.

Now reworked, my manuscript finaled in a number of competitions. And I didn’t win anything.

That was okay though. I wrote the next story that unveiled itself to me at 9pm one night. The Baggage Handler. Now that I had some kind of endorsement from finaling in these competitions, I signed with the Steve Laube Agency, and Steve found me a home with Thomas Nelson.

And I kept writing the stories that I’d been stockpiling all those years.

The Baggage Handler came out in March 2019, and was followed by The Camera Never Lies in December 2019 and Where the Road Bends in June 2020.

 

Can you give us a brief synopsis of The Baggage Handler?

Sure. Three people mix up their luggage at the airport, and at the baggage depot they discover there is far more in their baggage than they remember packing. And the Baggage Handler tells them they have to deal with it before they can leave.

I am writing modern-day parables, with truth presented in the form of stories that engage with readers because they are recognizable from their own world. The Baggage Handler is a modern-day parable about the power of releasing our baggage.

 

What made you decide to write that book?

The Baggage Handler itself was borne out of rejection. That first manuscript about reality TV and churches finaled in a range of fiction awards but I couldn’t get industry interested in it. Someone suggested for my next novel maybe I should focus on “life lesson” stories. I read a couple of stories like that, then at 9pm one night I was reading when The Baggage Handler arrived. It pretty much downloaded into my head. When I next checked the clock it was 1am, and I had the story, the characters, plot, twists, structure – almost everything. That hasn’t happened before or since with books 2 and 3, but I’m glad it did with The Baggage Handler. 

 

Why did you decide to enter your work into writing contests?

A number of reasons …

I’m based in Australia, so breaking into a marketplace like America is all-but impossible. I had to get known and make connections, so I thought being recognized through awards would help.

I also wanted feedback. I’m glad I did – as I mentioned earlier I learned a quick but important lesson about writing for the US market when I submitted to my first awards. Without that lesson, I don’t get published in the USA, it’s that simple.

Writing contests also gave me a deadline to work to. As this is secondary to my job, I find that it’s a constant juggle, and the thing without deadlines often is the first to slide back to the back burner. A writing contest makes it impossible to shift the deadline.

Lastly, I wanted to see if my work was good outside my head. My stories – like every author’s stories – bounce around internally with no idea if they’re going to work. This is one way to test it out.

 

How concerned should new authors be about winning an award for their books?

You shouldn’t be concerned with winning, just entering. There is a discipline around entering – polishing your work, submitting your ideas – that provide so much benefit. And awards can be subjective – The Baggage Handler won the Christy Award in 2019 as Best First Novel, but six months later didn’t win the next award it was listed in.

If you want to be concerned about awards as an author – focus on becoming a finalist. It gives you visibility.

 

Are awards a way for a new author to be recognized?

It’s one way, sure. It also helps you build a profile, and that Holy Grail of new authordom: platform.

 

There are an enormous number of writing contests available. Do you have any guidance on how an author should go about deciding which contests to enter?

Go for the contests in which the judges represent those groups you want to be in front of. Look for those that are within your financial means. Look for those that provide real feedback to make you a better writer (in fact, personally I avoid any competition that doesn’t give you feedback).

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

Enjoy your writing. This is hard, it’s likely to be unfinancial and if you want it to be and you’re still working you’ve just added a second job to your plate. So enjoy it! Writing is a heart pursuit driven by our head, so go back to the reason why you want to write. That can help you when times are tough or you hit a hurdle. And every author has those.

 

What are you working on now?

Novel #4 … which is that manuscript I wrote first up. It’s never been published! I’m updating it for 2021 and will then look to finding a home for it.

Soon-to-be-fired reality TV guru Randy Stone is out of ideas, and his last roll of the dice is a new show taking aim at churches: Pastor Swap.

 

Randy tricks a national denomination into participating by offering a national platform to help draw people back to church after the pandemic, and two of their pastors are thrown into the manipulative world of reality TV. Brad Shepherd leaves his tiny, elderly, suburban church, switching places with Jack Alexander, son of the city’s biggest megachurch pastor at New Heaven Cathedral. Brad and Jack believe this is a God-given opportunity to go on TV – Brad to save his dying church from real estate developers and Jack to prove himself to his controlling father.

 

But Randy already knows how churches will be portrayed on his show, because in the 21^st century there is no god bigger than TV. Or him.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Web site = https://davidrawlings.com.au/

Facebook = https://www.facebook.com/DavidRawlingsAuthor

Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/davidrawlingsauthor/

Twitter = https://twitter.com/DavidJRawlings

 

Thanks again, David, for being with us.

My pleasure, thanks for the opportunity to chat to you.

 

Who is The Baggage Handler? Share on X

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — MARCH 2021

The Craft of Writing blog continues in 2021 with alternating monthly posts between craft experts and award-winning authors. Today I am thrilled to welcome craft expert and award-winning author Randy Ingermanson back to the blog.

Randy is probably best known for his wildly popular craft book How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. However, he’s also an award-winning novelist. Transgression was the first book in his City of God series and won the 2001 Christy Award for best futuristic novel in Christian fiction.

Randy has been interviewed on this blog once before: in 2019, he discussed How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. In today’s interview, I’d like to explore his follow up craft book How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method. Enjoy!

 

***

 

Randy Ingermanson wants to teach you how to write excellent fiction.
He’s been teaching for more than twenty years, and he’s known around the world as “the Snowflake Guy” in honor of his wildly popular Snowflake Method of writing a novel.
Randy is an award-winning novelist and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine. He says that “Fiction Writing = Organization + Craft + Marketing,” so he focuses on those three topics in his e-zine.
He also blogs when the spirit moves him. He is trying to get the spirit to move him weekly, but the spirit gets touchy about schedules.
Randy lives in the Pacific Northwest and works as a manservant to two surly and demanding cats. Visit Randy at AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

 

Write a Dynamite Scene with Randy Ingermanson Share on X

 

***

 

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Randy Ingermanson. Thank you for joining us!

Thanks for having me again, Kay!

 

Your book How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method is an enormously popular book on the subject of writing. Can you tell us how you came about writing that book?

If my memory is right, I was talking to an agent friend of mine, Steve Laube, at a writing conference in the spring of 2014. I’ve known Steve for nearly 30 years now, and he bought several of my novels when he was an editor, back when I was writing for traditional publishers. So we have a long history together and we make it a point to spend some time talking whenever we’re at the same conference.

Somehow or other, Steve and I got onto the topic of my Snowflake Method, and the amazing response it’s generated around the world. The Snowflake Method page on my website has been viewed more than 6 million times, and it’s made me famous.

And I mentioned to Steve that I had once tried to write a book on the Snowflake Method, but my agent at the time said he didn’t think he could sell it. Steve pointed out that I didn’t have an agent anymore, because I was publishing my work independently. And I decided it couldn’t hurt to try it on my own.

So I went home from the conference and started typing. Within four months, I published the book, and it’s now sold over 50,000 copies and is still going very strong.

 

How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method is a follow up to the first.  Why did you decide to write that book?

A few years after I published the first Snowflake book, I realized that it had incredible legs. It was still earning nearly as much money every year as it did the year it launched. And I was still getting a lot of email from people who loved the book.

And it occurred to me that there’s a lot more to writing than just the overall design of a novel. One of the most popular talks I teach at conferences is my talk on how to structure a scene, which happens to be Step 9 in my Snowflake Method.

It’s a very important step.

There are two scene structures that work. Only two. If you master those two structures, you’ve made a quantum leap forward in your writing skills. I remember back in the early 1990s when I was learning to write, and I discovered these two scene structures. Within months, my writing level had jumped up several notches. My critique buddies were astonished at how much better my writing got, month over month.

So I decided to write a book on just that—the simple secrets of structuring a scene that automatically gives your reader a powerful emotional experience. If you follow these two “design patterns,” you can’t help but write perfectly structured scenes.

 

Please give us a quick synopsis of How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method.

There is one thing your reader desperately wants from you, and you have the power to give it to them. Your reader desperately wants Story. And what is Story? Story is what happens when you walk through great danger in somebody else’s skin. There are two key elements to any Story—a character and a crucible. You put the character inside a crucible; and you put your reader inside the character. The fundamental thing you need to know about writing scenes is that every scene in your story must be a story in its own right. That is, a scene is a story-within-a-story. Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and end, and therefore every scene does too. Over all the centuries that writers have been writing fiction, two kinds of scenes have been found to work incredibly well as stories-within-a-story. One kind is called a Proactive Scene. The other kind is called a Reactive Scene. If you master the mechanics of these two types, you can’t help but write powerful scenes. Every time. The book covers these two kinds of scenes in extreme detail.

 

Do each of those craft books stand on its own, or does the reader have to read the first before the second?

They each stand alone. There are somewhere between six and twelve important skills that a novelist needs to learn. One of these is story design, and the book How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method teaches you one approach to that skill. Another skill is scene structure, and the book How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method teaches you that. Some writers are good at one of these skills but not the other. Some writers need to learn both skills.

 

You won a Christy Award for Transgression, the first book in your City of God series. Was Transgression your first work of fiction?

Transgression was the first novel I actually got published, but it wasn’t the first one I wrote.

I started writing on Easter Sunday in 1988 and I worked at my novel for a couple of years. Then a writer friend of mine pointed out a serious flaw in the story—it didn’t have one protagonist, it had eight. That was seven too many. The book simply had too big of a scope.

So I started a new book that trimmed it down a lot, with only one protagonist. But then I realized it was still too sweeping in scope. I was trying to cover too much history.

I junked that novel and started another–and actually finished it, four years after I first started writing. I never did get that third novel published, but maybe I will someday, if I rework it. It was good enough to get some requests to read by various agents, but not good enough to actually get published.

If I’m remembering right, Transgression was the sixth book I started, and I had a very strong hunch I was going to sell it. I just felt like I had learned enough of the skills of fiction writing to actually tell a story that would engage my reader’s emotions. I started it in the spring of 1996 and sold it in the spring of 1999. My publisher originally planned to release it on January 1, 2000, but that got pushed back a few months.

 

How concerned should new authors be about winning an award for their books?

Awards are good, and they definitely help validate you as an author. When I won a Christy award for Transgression, it was up against books by two very famous authors. Nobody thought it had a chance to win, because it was my debut novel, and at the time, no debut novel had yet won a Christy. At the awards ceremony, nobody even knew who I was, other than my editors and a couple of writer friends. My editors entered it figuring we had absolutely nothing to lose.

So when they called my name, that was a huge shock to everyone, including me and my editors. But overnight, it put me on the map in Christian fiction. After that, I quickly sold several more novels to other publishers, and I was on my way.

But it’s just a fact that there’s a huge element of luck in awards. Your book needs to be good, but there is no scale that measures “goodness,” and a lot depends on what the judges like. I got lucky, but I’m not going to complain.

I certainly encourage writers to enter their books in awards contests, because winning helps, and losing doesn’t harm your career. (It may harm your ego if you take the whole award game too seriously. Don’t.)

But I don’t think it’s wise to plan your career around winning awards. Plan your career based on the factors of the “Success Equation:” Write for a particular target audience that’s large enough to sell to. Focus relentlessly on improving the quality of your writing. Get your production level up to a strong, sustainable level. And when all those are working, build out a marketing machine that emphasizes automation and discoverability. (Please note: social media emphasizes neither.)

If you do that, in the long run, awards will be the tinsel on the tree.

 

There are an enormous number of writing contests available. Do you have any guidance on how an author should go about deciding which contests to enter?

I’m just now submitting my latest novel, Son of Mary, to several writing awards contests. These cost money to enter, so there’s a tradeoff here. I don’t think it makes sense to shotgun out applications to all the many contests.

Some of the awards are well-established and I think it would be great to win any one of those.

Some other awards look a little shady to me—maybe I’ve never heard of the award, or their past winners have terrible sales numbers on Amazon, or they have basic spelling and grammatical errors on their website. Maybe they just have too many categories, which suggests that their main interest is in collecting entry fees and passing out as many meaningless awards as possible.

In the end, I think you should go with your instincts and submit your work to awards you’d be proud to win. Then send it in and forget about it. If something good happens, that’s great. Otherwise, you have a life to live and books to write and a family that you need to spend time with while you have them.

 

What one piece of advice would you give to new writers?

Focus on quality above all else. If you nail the quality thing, everything else will follow. You’ll find agents and editors worth working with. You’ll get your books published. Your work will find readers. You’ll have something you feel good about marketing. Quality is Job 1 for any writer. Until you’ve got quality, nothing else really matters.

And the good news is that quality can be learned. We now know that “talent” is mostly a myth—quality really is about hard, focused work where you’re constantly trying to write just a little better.

 

What are you working on now?

I’m currently polishing up a novel titled Son of David, which is Book 2 in my Crown of Thorns series. This will be a four-book series of novels on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Last year around this time, I released Son of Mary, which is Book 1 in the series.

You might very reasonably ask if there’s anything new to be said about Jesus. Hasn’t the “greatest story ever told” been pretty much done to death? What could anyone possibly say that would be original?

If you’re asking that, then read what my reviewers say about Son of Mary. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0863CSFDG

I’ve been doing research on first-century Judea since the early 1980s. My personal library has a LOT of books. I’ve been to Israel five times and worked on archaeological digs in both Jerusalem and Magdala—the hometown of Mary Magdalene. I’ve read most of the Old Testament in Hebrew. My wife and I have driven all over Israel, just hanging out at sites, both famous and obscure.

I’ve connected the dots in a new way that my readers like, because it makes them feel like they’ve been traipsing around Galilee with Jesus. That’s all I want for these books.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

If you want to learn more about how to write fiction, I have a website that focuses on just that one thing. I will teach you to write excellent fiction at www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

If you want to learn more about the fiction I actually write, I have an entirely separate website that focuses just on my novels. I will take you on an adventure to first-century Jerusalem at www.ingermanson.com. If you don’t want to go on an adventure to the time and place where Jesus walked, then don’t come to this website, because you’ll hate it. My novels are for people who would jump at the chance to buy a one-way ticket on a time-machine to first-century Jerusalem—and never look back.

 

Thank you, Randy, for being with us today.

Create Dynamite Scenes with Randy Ingrmanson Share on X