Quick Tips: Ignore The Haters I have seen and heard it time and time again: Authors fretting over one bad review. As an editor, seeing one of my authors pull their hair out because of one negative review or comment makes me want to pull my hair out along with them. It’s tough, the world of writing and publishing. An author’s work is out...
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Tag: writing
Recognizing the Patterns in Your Life Time. We all need more of it, don’t we? It’s like the old saying goes: There’s just not enough hours in the day. And while that is true, there is no need to just give up the fight to find a bit more time to write or revise or promote. I just think you have to be savvy...
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Penned Con St. Louis 2014 This weekend the Divas all met in St. Louis, Missouri for the first annual Penned Con, an event for writers, readers, editors, stalkers, and book lovers. We had a wonderful time connecting with the authors. The convention offered many wonderful and informative panels and workshops. Best-selling author, Jasinda Wilder, was the keynote speaker, and Smashwords founder, Mark Coker, held...
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Balancing Your Faith and Your Muse This article is personal. Very personal. I’m going to talk about faith, specifically Christianity. It may seem negative, but I don’t mean it to be. I love my faith, but I am not blind to the flaws—especially among those who profess it. I feel in a way the subject matter transcends faith. None of us live in a...
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Quick Tips: Writing Achilles’ Heel Most of the articles the Divas write draw from personal experience, and this one is not any different. I’ve been struggling with my first novel for a while now. Really, I’ve been struggling with many first novels. I have about four or five WIPs that can’t seem to get past chapter four. My intentions are great when I start...
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So I’ve been obsessed with reading books from the male POV lately, especially books written by women. There is a certain understanding of the opposite sex’s mental state that’s required when writing a realistic male character. Many times I have read books where I could tell clearly a woman is writing a man and it pulls me from a book fast. The male protagonist is...
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Divas Recommend It’s Time for (Many) Experienced Writers to Stop Blogging by L.L. Barkat Well now, I came across this article recently, It’s Time for (Many) Experienced Writers to Stop Blogging by L.L. Barkat, and it provoked me to thought. Yes, this is advice for 2013, but you may find it’s still relevant for 2014 and beyond. You hear it everywhere—you must have a blog....
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Divas On Writing: It’s All About The Name I can’t say that the one hardest thing about being a writer is naming your characters, but it can be a really, really frustrating part. And I mean really hair-pullingly frustrating. What impact will a character’s name have on their development? What’s the meaning behind the name? Does it roll off the tongue? Does it sound...
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Diva Interview: Kathy Bryson I put out a call for authors of different genres for a new interview series the Divas are going to feature, and Kathy was one of the first to sign up! Kathy not only has an impressive background in marketing, writing, teaching, and journalism but she writes in a genre as impressive: fantasy/paranormal. So let’s get to know Kathy Bryson...
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Quick Tips: Write It Out Longhand This week’s quick tips is very easy. Try writing out your story longhand. In fact it’s something that many writers have done before ever setting a word to type, but as an avenue it’s been lost in today’s technical age. When I first started writing, I had journals and journals stacked in my closet. Back fifteen to twenty...
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