What a writer doesn’t know may hurt them?
What a way to kick off a blog post! Isn’t this supposed to be a place where writers find encouragement? It is. Keep reading. This isn’t click-bait. It’s essential to your success …
Authors
Writing When You’re Not Writing
If you’re writing this week, it’s either because you’re on a tight deadline, you’re stranded on a solitary island in the South Pacific and it just happens to have wifi, or you finished all your shopping and meal prep …
Gratitude and the Writing Life
This year is quickly wrapping up and the holidays are already upon us. How did that happen so fast? Some are closing out the year with great joy and reason for celebration while others are struggling with disappointment. With Thanksgiving …
When It’s Okay for a Writer to Binge
Friends and I were discussing (okay, it was the other Books & Such agents) when it is and is not appropriate for a writer to binge. The conversation created–pun intended–food for thought.
We LOVE food for thought. One …
Health Tips for Writers
Our writers’ health tips in today’s post don’t focus on healthy platform numbers. And we’re not aiming for “At least I have my health” as a goal. But it is worth exploring what factors contribute to a writer’s literal health…and …
Expectations vs. Reality
photo courtesy of Pixabay by permission
Do an aspiring author’s great expectations for a literary agent align with reality? Not always.
With a combined (estimated) 200,000 work hours devoted to serving the Christian publishing industry, we Books & Such Agents …
Five Practices for Becoming a Better Writer
Whether you’ve just started putting pen to paper or you’ve been writing for years, one truth remains constant: there’s always room to grow. Becoming a better writer isn’t about waiting for inspiration to strike—it’s about showing up consistently, pushing your …
The Dreaded No
If an author were to compile a vocabulary list for writers in the making, or writers stuck in the middle, they might put the dreaded NO at the top of the list. To many, it feels as if they hear …
Random Agent Thoughts
Yes, this is a blog post of random agent thoughts.
A few weeks after my father’s heart stopped beating for the last time, we discovered among his office files a three-ring binder labeled “497 Random Thoughts.” Over the course of …
Some of my Favorite Fiction Techniques
Today I’m just going to highlight a few fiction techniques I love finding in a manuscript.
Beats
This is a technique the author uses to seamlessly substitute an action that identifies the character in place of the tired old he-said, …