Author Archive

The 2nd Most Powerful Story Tool: Express Pain

 The writing life requires courage…It requires the willingness to be alone with oneself. To be gentle with oneself. – Dani Shapiro   What we don’t know can and does hurt us. The old saying was never true. We hurt when we’re ignorant, and so does everyone else. In fact, I wonder if ignorance is the main reason we experience so much pain in
Read more…

The #1 Most Powerful Story Tool: Convey Fear

High stakes yield high success.   Donald Maass If you’re working to write or edit a book, you naturally want to know how you can improve the read. In all the books I edit, I try to serve as a careful reader and one of my primary considerations is always whether the story has enough of a sense of danger
Read more…

Designing the Read

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. Anne Lamott   When you set out to write, you’re designing the read for a certain type of reader – you. So the question is, What inspires you?  As I mentioned last week, powerful writing comes from powerful editing. So when you edit and when
Read more…

Want to Write a Best-Seller? Mine Your Empathy

The greatest of divides…is between those who regard the visible world as being of primary importance…and those who do not. Dallas Willard   There are so many challenges to writing a story that works, let alone that can capture readers’ hearts and imaginations to get talked about and shared. And so few people who talk about writing never will for
Read more…

How Are You Relating to Your Reader?

Last week, following my church’s vision meetings, I was inspired by the connection to our two distinct strategic priorities required for writing and editing: “Do You Know Your Priorities As a Writer?” And this weekend, God provided more excellent inspiration to help further define this fundamental difference between writing from inspiration, and editing to help your readers. We started with a clear objective:
Read more…