Archive | January, 2012

Susan May Warren, My Book Therapy, Aspiring Novelists

What does it take to be a writer? Conversations with an aspiring novelist

I agreed to meet Sally at the local coffee shop on a Monday morning, and I told her to bring a notebook. I’d seen her at church a few times with her four children hanging off her like she might be monkey bars. She ran the children’s program and had even pulled off the church Christmas musical with twenty haloed children in under a month, so I knew she had energy as well as the chops to make it happen if she wanted it. She wanted to write a novel. I told her over the next year, I would be glad to help get all the way to a finished manuscript. She simply needed to be willing to hear the truth and dare to take my advice. I sat there […]

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Commitment: The Key to a Successful Year Part One: Point Of No Return

If you’re like me, either you have already got a list of goals and a general idea how to reach those goals, or you are ready to set some great goals for 2012. Goal setting is fun. Creative. Futuristic. I’m a firm believer in goal setting. That being said, goals are worthless haunts of what might have been unless you take another step: commit to them. I didn’t totally understand what commitment meant until I studied the B52 Bomber. It’s a remarkable military aircraft, with capabilities that would astound you. But it’s also a very heavy plane, with a cumbersome takeoff weight of 448,000 pounds. That’s a lot to try to get off the ground! As the bomber accelerates down the runway, one of the crewmen in the cockpit must […]

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Fabulous Friday Fiction: Love Lifted Me

Jade never knew happily-ever-after would be this messy, loud . . . delicious. Jade Benson embraces unexpected motherhood when her husband Max gains custody of his young son. As she and Max work out their newly formed family, an invitation to coach Texas high school football sends them on a journey. Then a stranger reveals a painful secret, and Jade faces her hardest challenge yet. When she surrenders her heart to God and to her husband, Jade discovers the joy of love lifting her above her fears.   “All my songs tell a story. But this one is special. My first book series is about looking backward while moving forward. It’s about chasing dreams, endless country roads, and tender faith.” -Sara Evans   My web site: www.rachelhauck.com   Rachel Hauck […]

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The Fast Draft – Should you or shouldn’t you?

I’m fast drafting a novel right now. Last night, after dinking around all day, I told myself to “get to it” and blasted out 2000 words in an hour. Give or take a minute or two. I’m near the end of a book so I know a bit of what’s going on. I have a feel for the characters and the story. Those random conversations characters have together started running randomly through my head a few weeks ago. Next week, I’ll end this fast draft and start rewriting. Most of the beginning of the story will change, I already know. The middle needs a lot of tweaking. With that in mind, I hope my ending is the most stable part of this fast, first draft. I’ll have things at the […]

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