Category: How To and Tips
The Healing Power of Writing
As a holistic health practitioner, I use a wide variety of healing modalities in my private practice. One of the most effective therapies is therapeutic writing. When integrated as adjunctive therapy in an overall treatment plan, it can serve to promote psychological healing. Most of us write alone. It’s a solitary experience. But in the […]
How To Sell Books: My Marketing Journey
I thought my romcom writing career would last forever. I didn’t make much money on my first book, She Sins at Midnight, during its debut year. But I knew going in that would probably be the case. Sales wouldn’t go gangbusters until my second book, The Reinvention of Mimi Finnegan. Which is exactly what happened. […]
Silence, Mostly, And A Trickling Of Form Rejections
There were nine children sitting down to eat at our table that day. Six of them were moaning: I don’t like broccoli; I don’t like potatoes; I don’t like quiche. One of the babies picked up a carrot and squeezed it so that lumps of the orange vegetable fell all over the high chair and […]
Book Coaching from both a Book Coach and a Client
One of my roles in the writing world is serving as a book coach for Author Accelerator, a company created by book coach extraordinaire, Jennie Nash. I’m also a client. I work with a book coach on my own novels. When I talk to people about book coaching, the most frequent question I get asked […]
Ellen’s Advice for Authors: Twelve Important Rules of English that Shouldn’t be Forgotten
Ellen’s Advice for Authors: Twelve Important Rules of English that Shouldn’t be Forgotten With thanks to creator Frank L. Visco If you ask me, there are never enough rules to follow when writing. Frankly, a dozen of them barely scratch the surface. If I had my way, a yearly reading of Strunk and White’s The […]
What Lurks Behind Your Identity As A Writer?
On the surface, our identity as writers is straightforward, isn’t it? A writer is someone who writes, and we write from a burning desire to express ourselves, or a sense that we’re incomplete if we don’t. When the biggest challenge most writers face is claiming a space for that passion amid myriad competing demands and […]
The Shame Of Losing
My first book is a memoir called The Shame of Losing. I didn’t mean for it to be a memoir; in fact, I tried in my writing program to make it a movie script, then a collection of short stories. It was my mentor, a memoirist, who called me out, saying that this was my […]
The Fear and Joy of Writing on Proposal
Most new authors, whether searching for agent rep or a publishing contract, will need to complete a manuscript, polish it up, and then hope and pray the concept is one that will pique interest, that the writing and voice will connect, and that story will ultimately satisfy. It’s a leap of faith and a lot […]
How Research Made me a Better Writer
When people find out that I have graduate degrees, they often expect me to tell them I studied English. The wrinkles of confusion on their faces deepen even more when I tell them that my field of research and study was Human Geography. I know what you’re thinking: What’s that?! Even I didn’t know until […]
Is It a Floor Wax or a Dessert Topping?
If you’re of a certain age, you will remember the classic Saturday Night Live “commercial” featuring Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd bickering over whether “New Shimmer” is a floor wax or a dessert topping. The argument is resolved when pitchman Chevy Chase steps in to demonstrate that it’s both! I was reminded of this comedy […]
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