Writer Tips/Quesions

Tips for Writers and a few answers to questions I've been asked that you might be interested in. If you have a specific question about writing, please email it to me and I'll try to answer it. If I post it, I'll send you a free book of your choice!

I want to find a Christian publisher. How do I go about doing this?

My answer: That is an obvious concern. The only way a publisher is going to buy your book is if it meets or exceeds their expectations. If you're not happy with your current publisher, then it's time to break out the query letter and start shopping around.

Since you want a Christian publishing house, the best place to start would be to get the latest Sally Stuart's Christian Writer's Market Guide. This comes out annually and has most of the guldelines for Christian publishing houses which can a lot of times be found online. Read the guidelines and make sure before submitting that your manuscript matches those guidelines.

How do you write your books? Take me through the process from beginning to end.

Wow, I get ideas from everywhere. A movie, a song, a sermon, being STUCK IN THE DMV; you get the picture. After I have the little seedling of an idea, I try to grow it by expounding on it. I pull out the pencil and paper to jot stuff down because when I get an idea, I'm not usually at home.

Once home, I enter everything I've written in the computer and let it germinate. Then I have to introduce myself to my characters. I use Randy Ingermanson's handy dandy little character chart and fill in all the information. That chart is great. I highly recommend it or something like it. I've found that if I don't know my characters inside and out, I can't make the story work.

Once I've gotten the characters down, I move on to the plot. I ask myself what's the worst thing that could happen to my Hero and Heroine, make it happen, then I try to make it even worse! THEN, I have to figure out how to get them out of the situation/s that they've managed to get themselves into. And that's usually when my house gets cleaned.

After I've got the basics of the story worked out in my mind, I write a LONG synopsis. I have a love/hate relationship with writing the synopsis. I love it when it's done. I hate everything in between. Anyway, once it's done, I break it into scenes.

After I have the scenes, I start writing Chapter One. The first part of the book for me is always the hardest. I don't usually have trouble with the middle because I've fleshed out the scenes so much. The ending goes pretty fast. Right now, I have 40 pages left to finish the second book I hope Steeple Hill will buy. I expect to finish that by the end of next week. But the beginning…ugh. So, once I get the beginning down, things usually go pretty well after that. The characters kind of take over the story and it writes itself. I just have to get them to that point.

What are some of your favorite books (not written by you)?

I love, love, love anything written by Brandilyn Collins. Deborah Raney's latest, REMEMBER TO FORGET. Robert Liparulo's GERM fascinated me. Dee Henderson's THE NEGOTIATOR was my favorite out of all of hers. I like Ted Dekker's earlier stuff, especially BLINK. Karen Kingsbury, of course. And I'm really getting into some Chick-lit. I'm not normally a 1st person POV reader, but I'm coming around with this genre. I just finished QUEEN ESTHER AND THE SECOND GRADERS OF DOOM and laughed my head off. The heroine was SO me and I could totally relate to her. STEALING ADDA by Tamara Leigh is my all time favorite book right now. I howled with laughter. Terri Blackstock is awesome. I love all her stuff. I could go on and on, but I'll stop there.