Tag: Guest Posts

A negative review hits like a bullet straight to the heart by Linda Rae Blair

Author Linda Rae Blair
Author Linda Rae Blair

One moment you are a self-confident author and the next you are a shaky, weepy blob of human being with your confidence smashed and a lump in your throat the size of your fist. Then your defenses kick in. Your brain child has been insulted for absolutely NO good reason. Some sadistic person has targeted your work unfairly, and you cannot understand how anyone can be so downright mean! Now you’re getting angry.

Okay, it’s time for a reality check here.

What does a negative review tell you, anyway? Really!?

Read it again…does it really say what your brain registered the first time around? Perhaps not. Perhaps the reader is saying more about him/herself than about your writing. Example: The reader complains that something was wrong with the formatting that made it difficult for him/her to “work” his/her way through the book. Rather than take the time to get through it, he/she gave up and gave you a 1-star hit. Continue reading “A negative review hits like a bullet straight to the heart by Linda Rae Blair”

The Healed Writer: Impervious to Praise by Alix Moore

Author Alix Moore

Writing Heals

Writing, like other forms of creation, is a vehicle for learning our life lessons. As writers, we must find the courage to speak our own idiosyncratic truths, and learn to stand in the limelight and be seen by others without flinching or trying to hide. If we are good writers, we are tempted to stand in ego, but ego is just puffery on a foundation of insecurity, and one bad review is enough to send us crashing down into discouragement.  One of the biggest gifts writing offers us is the chance to become convinced of the value of our work. Writing invites us to learn to love ourselves, to become so solid in our self-love that no one else’s opinion of us matters.

In the beginning, of course, those opinions do matter.  We show our words to our teachers, often when we are quite young, and we are lifted or dropped depending upon the response we get from them. As we age, our writing expands but so too may our insecurity about it.  Know any writers whose books end up in the desk drawer, attracting mice?  Know any writers whose books end up unwritten, bouncing off the insides of their heads? Continue reading “The Healed Writer: Impervious to Praise by Alix Moore”

The Fun of Writing Screenplays by Michael Allen

Author Michael AllenI can’t speak for other writers. But when I write, it’s with the big screen in mind. When I’m writing a novel, I’m actually picturing it as a movie. So, it was only a matter of time before I started learning the art of writing screenplays.

My first screenplay was for a Walt Disney internship. I wrote a story about a writer. How novel! Anyway, I didn’t get the internship. But, I did get launched into a whole new writing direction. I have written over ten screenplays now and I can’t say that my journey is the best way to go about getting there, but it makes all the sense in the world.

Where to Look

It seemed like nothing I wrote was ever going to be made. I couldn’t get past the gatekeepers to save my life. Breaking into the industry as far as I’ve been able to get simply landed on my lap from a producer out of Maryland. He has a contract with a cable network and was seeking a writer to make a movie out of his concept. Continue reading “The Fun of Writing Screenplays by Michael Allen”

Amazon Puts the Screws To Indie Authors by Boyd Lemon

Author Boyd Lemon

Electronic readers, mainly Amazon’s Kindle, and the ebooks they spawned have been a boon to Indie authors who could make a little money while providing their readers with a bargain. An author can publish his book in electronic format on Kindle without any cost. For example, my book, Digging Deep: A Writer Uncovers His Marriages, has sold about eight times as many copies in the Kindle format as it has in the print version with about the same profit per copy on both. The ebook cost the reader one-third or less of the cost of the print version.

It occurred to me sometime ago that Amazon in all its corporate greed would figure out a way to eliminate this benefit to Indie authors and turn it into more profit for Amazon. Last week Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing announced a scheme that does just that. Continue reading “Amazon Puts the Screws To Indie Authors by Boyd Lemon”