Writers Chat, hosted by Johnnie Alexander, and Brandy Brow, and Melissa Stroh is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!
“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.”
Picking the Write Fight
Novelist Crystal Caudill provides amazing insight into writing effective fight scenes for both physical and verbal fights. Learn the reasons why readers often skim through fight scenes, the purpose of a fight scene, and the nitty gritty techniques for writing physical fights. Crystal also shares how to write verbal confrontations that will keep your reader engaged while moving the story forward. For examples and additional resources, be sure to watch this week’s replay.
Watch the January 16th replay
Crystal Caudill is the award-winning author of “dangerously good historical romance. She is a stay-at-home mom and caregiver. When not writing, Crystal can be found hanging with her family, drinking hot tea, or reading at her home outside Cincinnati, Ohio. Find out more at crystalcaudill.com.
A Novel Approach to Setting Goals / Reaching Achievements (For the Goal-Averse)
Goals. Does just hearing this word set your teeth on edge and induce a cold sweat? Perhaps it hits an autoplay in your brain that recounts all the reasons everyone says you need to set goals to achieve anything, or else, doom. Maybe you’ve set goals before and failed—over and over. Not fun, eh? Writers Chat Co-host Brandy Brow agrees. She’ll tackle reasons the big G causes so many people grief and unveil a more peaceful way to gain achievements.
Watch the January 23rd replay
https://youtu.be/SRE_8x9YS84?si=XOxnhZJ_c-cRH095
Brandy Brow freelance edits and writes short stories for the general market. Her fiction explores the highs and lows of human nature and ranges from normal to strange, with a bit of creepy. An administrator by nature, she loves office supplies, and nonfiction appears like magic.
Writers Chat is hosted live each Tuesday for an hour starting at 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET on Zoom. The permanent Zoom room link is: http://zoom.us/j/4074198133
It’s the end of December, and for me, that means it’s time to pull out a fresh, ginormous, old-fashioned office calendar for the new year and start planning. I have gleefully begun to fill in the calendar’s little boxes.
I love to dream up a plan.
I love shiny new calendars with pristine white blocks waiting for to-do lists. I love highlighters and color-coding. In other words, I am a true believer in organization. The funny thing about plans is, a lot of times it doesn’t matter how carefully I lay out goals, something always happens to delay progress or completely derail me. Or send me off in a new direction.
That’s what happened this past year. I’d been praying for direction for some time. The time-consuming process of querying, getting requests for fulls, then getting the eventual rejections, had left me discouraged. This, combined with the state of the publishing industry, had me seriously considering self-publishing. I asked my writer friends to pray with me about what direction I should take.
After much prayer and research, I stopped querying and got busy amassing all the information I could about self-publishing, started formulating a plan, and even took a few baby steps, such as lining up an editor for the first book in my YA Contemporary series, but none of my methods were really helping me move forward in a substantial way.
Then an interruption came, or was it an opportunity?
I got a message from Jenny Knipfer, an author I’d met through reading her book and posting a review, (which I think is a pretty neat way to meet someone.) She wanted to know if I was interested in a multi-author collaboration. My immediate response was “Yes!” even though it wasn’t a YA project. I felt confident in accepting because the timing was perfect. It was an answer to prayers. A divine assignment. I’m still writing my young adult fiction and will publish at least one young adult novel in 2024, but I’d also been thinking of writing more in the time period of the book she requested. (1960s)
I can get so focused on my self-designated goals that I have trouble discerning the difference between an interruption and an opportunity, but this was a flashing neon sign.
Taking advantage of this offer was the push I needed to learn the things I needed to learn to independently publish. Signing on to the Apron Strings project forced me to prioritize what must be done and let go of what wasn’t absolutely necessary. Left to my own devices, I likely would have continued to research and weigh options. At the time Jenny contacted me, I had over-organized my plans to the point that I had a huge file on all things self-publishing, but had become overwhelmed and had stagnated. Perhaps the Apron Strings project was a heavenly kick in the pants, a get a move on, already.
It seemed like a situation tailored just for me, with a built-in support group, a few directions, and a shorter to-do list than my massive file.
I desperately needed that shove.
I’m not saying I’ll ever throw all planning out the door and just wait for favorable circumstances to appear. If I had done such a thing, I wouldn’t have been able to jump in when the opportunity presented itself. All of my previous research and attempts at organizing a publishing and marketing plan served me well.
I knew in my gut this was a gift, and God meant for me to step out. It still took faith. I didn’t feel ready. And I don’t feel ready now, but I finished writing book five for the Apron Strings series in plenty of time, and have hit all the required deadlines so far. Even so, it’s a daily faith walk, because there is so much I don’t know, and there is always more to learn. I suspect it will always be this way. I’ll never have a plan solid enough to account for all contingencies or keep me in my comfort zone, but that’s okay.
One of my new writing goals for 2024 is to be ready to hear, recognize, and respond. The next time a side project comes up, I hope I’ll remember to stay open and pray about it, not immediately discount an opportunity as an interruption.
What about you? How do you discern the difference between interruptions and opportunities?
The Apron Strings Book Series is a collection of heartfelt inspirational stories connected by one cookbook, featuring different women throughout the decades from 1920 to 2020. A new book will be released every month in 2024. Donna Jo’s book, Joann, is book five in the series and releases May 15th, 2024.
Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary and adult historical fiction. She writes about tough issues but always ends her stories on a note of hope. Her novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles. The first book in Donna Jo’s young adult series is scheduled for publication in 2024.
As we near the end of the year, my thoughts turn to finishing the year strong. Where can I still push forward? What can I do during the holidays to promote or grow my social media? It’s a busy time with family and friends, yet we can still advance our goals. This year isn’t complete yet.
If you haven’t set goals for your author journey, now is a great time to get some going.
If you don’t set writing goals, it will be hard to know when you reach a milestone. You can’t wake up one morning with a finished manuscript. It begins with small steps that lead to more steps that continue until you have a rough draft that might look like a story.
Success as an author is one step after another that never really stops!
God leads you to more when you’ve accomplished the small steps in front of you.
Pray for God to show you what you can do and how to get there. It takes faith and perseverance. You can do it!
One of my goals for the rest of this year is doubling down on my social media posts. Another goal on every notepad, digital reminder, and planner remains to write daily on my work in progress. It’s been in a rough draft for over two years. It’s a mess, but it won’t be by January.
Guess what I’ll be doing in January?
Creating a goal sheet. I think you get the idea. Set some goals. You’ll be happy to have them. You can start strong and finish strong!
Jill Chapman resides in Southern Indiana with her husband of forty-four years. They enjoy their country lifestyle and visiting with their children and grandchildren. Her life centers around her family and her yellow lab, Indy. She is an avid movie watcher, loves Mexican food, and enjoys watercolor painting. Jill says her life is like a good plate of nachos, a tiny kick of spice, and a whole lotta cheese.
Upon returning from a writer's conference earlier this year, Cathy found a 1963 Shasta Airflyte Camper sitting in her driveway. Since then, she has taken quite the fancy to travel writing. She hopes you'll join her on this adventurous journey!
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible to the visible.” -Tony Robbins
Whether you’re a natural goal setter or not, the benefits of doing so are undeniable. Below are three questions to consider as you set your writing goals for 2016:
What is my why? Are you writing to earn money? To pursue a dream? Leave a legacy? Or simply for enjoyment? It’s different for everyone and thankfully, one is not better than another. Take some time in January to consider your why. It’s the foundation of your writing goals as it helps steer your expectations, time, and energy towards the results you truly desire. Write your why down and keep it visible wherever you choose to write.
How will I measure my goals? Once you’ve nailed down your why, focus on writing out specific goals to achieve it — but don’t stop there! Determine how you will measure your goals. Vague goals are useless ones. If you want to write more, what steps are you willing to take to make it happen? Do you need to set aside office hours in order to write “x” amount of hours per week? Do you need to decrease blog posts or other publications in order to pursue your why? Do you want to travel more? How could you begin saving money? Write it down!
Will you call yourself a writer? I admit it. The first time those four words—I am a writer—spilled from my lips I wasn’t sure whether to zig zag to avoid the lightening bolt or to choose to believe it myself, refusing to feel the pressure of validating my declaration. I chose the latter and it’s made all the difference. I’ll let this excerpt from Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks sum it up for us all:
We are lucky. Very lucky. We are writers.
Sometimes that may seem more curse than blessing, and others may not regard what we do with any more esteem or respect than mowing a lawn. To an outsider this can appear to be a hobby, or maybe a dream that eludes most.
But if that’s how they view you, they aren’t paying enough attention. If you are a writer–and you are if you actually write–you are already living the dream. Because the primary reward of writing comes from within, and you don’t need to get published or sell your screenplay to access it. …
Whatever we write, we are reaching out. We are declaring that we are not alone on this planet, and that we have something to share, something to say. Our writing survives us, even if nobody ever reads a word of it. Because we have given back, we have reflected our truth. We have mattered.
Now let’s go make 2016 one of our best…from one writer to another.
Which of the three questions will be your most challenging, and why?
