A Writer’s Best Baggage

by Lucinda Secrest McDowell @LucindaSMcDowel

Mike and I had arrived at the New Hampshire retreat center as speakers for the week’s Family Camp. While settling into the Lodge I glanced over at a bookshelf full of bound volumes of… what was it? Old copies of InterVarsity’s HIS Magazine from the 70’s and 80’s. 

Feeding Their Muse: Authors in the Kitchen

by Marcia Moston @MarciaMoston

Years ago when my husband (a polyester-clad, New York City dweller from Queens) asked me (a back-to-the-land, tepee-dwelling ex-hippie) to marry him, I asked him how he felt about dinner. After a moment of stunned silence, he said, “As in eating it?” 

Clearly he was mortified by images of grazing in the garden after a day’s work and would need a properly concocted meal. Over the years, I’ve learned to make some cd’s, as he calls them—culinary delights—although I never acquired an attachment to the kitchen. That’s why I was surprised when a friend said she’d thought of me when she came across a cookbook. Turns out her association was all in the title: Lit A’ La Carte: Favorite Recipes of Famous Authors.

5 Things to Consider When Naming Your Characters

Edie here. Today I'm super excited to introduce guest blogger, Erica Vetsch. She and several other writers (including our own Ane Mulligan) have just written an amazing book on writing, Writing from the Trenches. Be sure to give Erica a warm welcome and check out this newest book on writing. 

5 Things to Consider When Naming Your Characters

by Erica Vetsch @EricaVetsch

Do you struggle to find just the right name for your fictional characters? It can be a challenge, for sure. Sometimes a character springs into your head with all their quirks and abilities and facial features and with their name solidly in place. Other times, you’re piecing together a character through discovery, asking, coaxing, sometimes begging them to reveal themselves, their personality, and their name.

Create Rich Characters by Tapping into Your Past

by Emme Gannon @GannonEmme

“Oh Agnes, oh my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me, like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward.” 

Charles Dickens penned these poignant words in what some say was his veiled autobiography, David Copperfield. The character Agnes was based on the love of his life, Mary Hogarth, who died at age seventeen in Dickens’s arms. His lost love plagued his dreams and thoughts his entire life and sought restitution in his writing.

Hard Choices All Writers Must Face

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

True confession time.

Writing is both the thing I love best and the thing I hate most.

When the words flow, it’s heaven on earth. When they stutter to a halt, the opposite is true. And the truth is, both of these circumstances are a regular part of the writer’s life.

We write when we feel like, and when we don’t; when we’re inspired, and when we’re not. Most of all we write because we have to. Putting words on paper is life to some of us and an addiction without a recovery group.

The One Habit I had to Break to Become a More Confident Writer

Edie here. Today I'm really excited to post a new video from Great American Novelist, Warren Adler. In it he shares how all writers have habits they need to break.

by Warren Adler @WarrenAdler



TWEETABLE
The One Habit I had to Break to Become a More Confident Writer - @WarrenAdler on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Writers Have to Be Jugglers: Tips for Managing Multiple Projects at Once

Edie here. Today I want to give a shout out to Linda Gilden and her co-author, Linda Goldfarb. Their newest book, LINKED Quick Guide to Personalities: Maximizing Life Connections One Link at a Time, just won first place in the Golden Scroll awards. I want to say, CONGRATULATION!

Writers Have to be Jugglers
by Linda Gilden @LindaGilden

Even if writers maintain a strict schedule and finite office hours, part of almost every day will include juggling. Why?