The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

Writing Skills

From the Archive – Writing Skills

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I am a writer who consistently develops my writing skills.

I’m kicking back a bit this month to relax and get focused on my next book. At this writing, I still haven’t figured out what will come next.

There’s more than a decade’s worth of posts on this blog, and unless you utilize the search box in the right side bar, you’re missing out on some fantastically helpful posts.

With this post, I thought I’d offer a list of posts I’ve written geared toward developing your writing skills. And next time, a list on marketing.

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How Much Do You Know About Your Ideal Reader?

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know your ideal reader so you can hit the target with your book

Updated November 4, 2024.

Knowing your target audience or ideal reader—today’s term is avatar—is important in many ways. As the term implies, you are aiming at a target, so knowing as much as you can about it will enable you to hit the bull’s-eye.

Often the message you hope to convey through your fiction or nonfiction dictates a lot about who the audience is. For example, I wrote Carried by Grace because I wanted to help women…who were Christian…with children…who had been sexually abused. Additionally, I narrowed the age range to mothers who were 28 to 40.

Before you start to write, gain as much clarity about your ideal reader as possible, all the way down to their needs and struggles (this is critical if you blog). People read to meet a need in their life. What need are you meeting?

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3 Simple Steps to Create Unforgettable Characters Workshop

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This live interactive workshop happens Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at 1:00 Central time.

3 Simple Steps to Create Unforgettable Characters

Characters that captivate the reader are essential to all good novels. This workshop discusses a 3-step method to build your characters as well as utilizing elements outside the norm such as cultural communication differences and temperament devices like Myers-Briggs and Keirsey. Then putting it all together into a character profile as a guiding document while writing.

Invest in yourself and grow your writing skills.

Register today.

Watch Out for Anachronisms

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Anachronisms are element chronologically out of place.

What are anachronisms? Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online Dictionary defines anachronism as: “a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present.”

Anachronisms tend to occur primarily in historical fiction. It happens for various reasons, one of which is the writer failed to do the proper research needed.

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How NOT to Write a Book

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In writing book 3 of my Her Inheritance trilogy, I learned how NOT to write a book…at least for me. Hat’s off to pantsers because I think my recent experience comes pretty close to writing by the seat of my pants.

How NOT to Write a Book

  • DO NOT change your plot after you’ve already written 20,000 to 30,000 words.
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A Guide to Creating a Unique Character Voice

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creating a unique character voice

Originally published Aug. 11, 2015 as “Can you recognize your character’s voice?” UPDATED June 3, 2024.

My last blog talked about point of view (POV), so it seems appropriate today to discuss creating a unique character voice for each of your book’s main characters.

Our voice is as much a part of who we are as is the shape of our face. It’s an aspect of our physical being that people come to recognize about us as they get to know us.

Just as we—as writers and as individuals—have a recognizable voice, the characters in our novels have voices, too. And they shouldn’t sound like you or like every other character in your novel.

Though the reader doesn’t hear voice in the usual sense, the reader can recognize it through the character’s personality, how he or she speaks, and the words that character uses. This is character voice and is as apparent in the narrative of your POV character as it is in the dialog of your characters.

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Understanding Omniscient Point of View

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Omniscient point of view, the god-like view where the narrator knows all/sees all, has plagued me for a long time. I just couldn’t quite grasp how to write it.

Omniscient was the POV of nineteenth-century books. Later, as third-person limited came on the scene, omni-POV fell out of favor with publishers. I hear that it is recently making a comeback.

But there is an element of omni-POV that is essential and that many beginning writers often miss. So, let’s dive in and take a look at what omniscient point of view truly is.

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How to Outline a Novel

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mind map of book outlining

Outlining a novel is quite different from nonfiction. And maybe you’ve heard the terms plotter and pantser. A plotter is one who outlines. A pantser is someone who writes by the seat of their pants—without an outline. I think most writers (fiction and nonfiction) tend to do a bit of both. I fall into that category.

Like most things, there’s more than one way to outline your book. It’s all about personal choice and writing style. Some writers, after outlining their novel, have the book nearly written. I can assure you, I’m not one of those people!

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