What do you do when you come across journals, letters or personal stories written decades ago by a stranger? Do you throw them away without looking at them or do you take the time to read them?
As for me, I’m innately curious. I’m excited to discover a bit about the past and what was important to the writers, so of course I take the time to read such documents.
A year or so ago, I was pleasantly surprised whenRead More
With 2018 officially closed, I’ve analyzed what worked last year in my writing business – and what most decidedly failed. From that review, I’ve learned six writing lessons.
Although I could keep this information all to myself, I want to be transparent with you for two reasons:
First, no writer will ever truly “arrive” – there will always be new things to learn and writing that can be improved. I want you to realize that I’m writing alongside you, not above you.
Second, I’m hopeful that by sharing my insights, you will also benefit from the information. My goal has been and will continue to be to help writers succeed, not just in writing a book but in every area of their business. Make no doubt about it: If you’re writing a book that you want to sell to the public, you’re running a business.
The importance of individuality as an author is often sidelined by a host of challenges. But challenges aren’t always a bad thing.
In fact, I believe most of us enjoy a challenge every now and then, often entering into them intentionally. But if the outcome we desire doesn’t happen as quickly or exactly as we anticipate, then we tend to get frustrated and resort to our old way of doing things. Just consider all of the New Year’s resolutions made a few months ago; the majority of people have already abandoned them to return to their former habits.
We tend to be selective of our challenges, too. When we perceive the challenge to be out of our comfort zone or if we must do it alone, we tend to reject it outright, choosing instead to walk away from potential opportunities because of fear of the unknown and to avoid the risk of ridicule.
These fears extend to our writing. Often, it causes us to stifle our personalities and write in a more detached, formal manner. It also makes us selective in what we write about, selecting what we think our audience wants to read about, rather than what we feel compelled to write about.Read More
Nonfiction Authors: Let’s Get Real – Most authors know that building a platform (an audience) is critical to their success. And in today’s world, that means you have to have an online presence through social media as well as a website and email list.
Yet becoming visible is an uphill battle. We tend to follow every guru we discover, attend as many webinars as possible, and try every tactic known to man.
And before we know it, we’re overwhelmed and confused.
Despite all of this chaos, maybe we’ve begun to attract a small following. Suddenly, we realize that these people think that we are gurus. So, we have to act like one, right?
This often leads us to become prideful. Maybe we do know more about a certain topic than the people on our lists, based on our work experience and length of time in the field.
But the fact is, we don’t know everything.Read More
7 Ways Pumpkin Carving Is Like Writing a Book – Every autumn, I envision the cute costumes I could whip up in a jiffy without breaking the bank. The striking family photo taken of us in our coordinating outfits in the perfect pumpkin patch. And of course, displaying two award-worthy carved pumpkins (one for each child) at the entrance to our home.
Then I awake from my daydream.
The sad fact is that I’m not creative and I‘m certainly not crafty. I can’t sew on a button, let alone create an entire outfit, so I end up spending a small fortune on overpriced store-bought costumes that won’t fit again next year.
My family, apparently, cannot color coordinate nor smile simultaneously for a group photo no matter how many times we try in the fake farm setting next to the main road in the center of town.
And when it comes to carving pumpkins, well, let’s just say that it’s an adventure in humility.
“Pick something simple,” I instructed my youngest son.
Away to the Internet he went and a few minutes later, he happily supplied me with a printed image of Nintendo’s character, Kirby.
How hard can it be? I thought. It’s just a circular blob with eyes.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s do it.”
From that moment forward, the steps involved in carving that pumpkin reminded me of the steps we authors have to go through every time we write a book.Read More
Writing a book is similar to completing a puzzle. I love puzzles, and growing up, I believed everyone else did, too. After all, everyone in my family looked forward to our annual holiday gatherings, where we often caught up on family news while piecing together a puzzle in the sitting room. But I have since come to realize that many people find puzzles boring, overwhelming or downright frustrating.
The same is true when piecing together the content of a book. I’ve written several books, and I enjoy the challenge of figuring out which piece of information belongs where. But what comes naturally to me, doesn’t necessarily come easily to others.
This was revealed to me recently in a survey I conducted among my subscribers. I assumed that they were struggling with the writing process itself. As it turned out, their biggest challenge was organizing their existing written content.
So, to help those of you who have books stagnating on your desktop because you’re bored or overwhelmed with the process of organizing your content, I’ve put together the following tips:Read More
Dalene Bickel is a ghostwriter, biographer, book coach, and speaker who helps aspiring authors successfully write, develop, and self-publish their faith-based books.