A writer's journey...

Love your book come edit time Most authors don't ever want to see "their baby" again by the time it's published. They've read it, revised it, and rewritten parts it more times than they care to count. What if I told you the process could be a little easier?  Why not take a proactive approach? Here are 5 steps to make editing easier from the first draft: 1) Research before you write your book. This can be forensics, procedure, weapons--basically anything that pertains to your story. 2) Outline. Now if you're more of a panster you might balk at this, but at this point, I see value in at least setting out with a rough outline. If you don't want to do this from the start, as the story gets going, jot out future scenes. The benefit to this is logical progression. I have learned this lesson the hard way and it resulted in more intensive edits and rewrites. 3) Write when you're alert and sober. Writing is a business. Would you ever show u...

You’ve finished your first draft and now it’s time to really get to work. The “play” time of creating a story and following along with your characters has ended—or has it? Like everything else, editing is about mindset. Do you look at it as a dredging task or do you focus on the shining gem your manuscript will be when you finish? Do you get weighed down analyzing word play (sentence structure, for example) or do you realize how you’re sharpening your manuscript? See, there are two ways of looking at a situation. If you view editing as a tedious necessity, it’s pretty safe to surmise that you don’t enjoy the process. Unfortunately, this is going to reflect in the end product. You’ll take shortcuts. You’ll declare something as finished just because you don’t want to look at it again. But what if you were to think about the end result instead of the process to get there? What if you accepted editing as a necessary step in making your book marketable, in getting it into the ...

Every writer dreams of the day they are able to leave the day job and pursue their passion full-time. Few make it happen. I’m here to share with my readers and the followers of this blog that I did it! I am now a full-time author! I share this not to brag, but to inspire, to let you know that you can do it too.  Now, I’m a huge believer in affirmations and the Law of Attraction and I want to share my story with you. Warning, though, if you’re not yet a believer, you might be after you read my story. Here it is. At the end of last year, my sister, Sherry and her husband were down for a visit. She has taught me a lot and has introduced me to many great teachers of our time. One of them is Jack Canfield. Anyway, back on point. We watched a video they had brought with Jack Canfield. In it he emphasized how we are capable of anything.  We are, in fact, limitless.  He even demonstrated this by having us do a physical exercise. It had me blurting out an explet...