WRITE NOW! Workshop Podcast: Write a Book, Change the World with Kitty Bucholtz

Thinking back over the difficult times I've gone through, and how it has affected my writing, and then thinking about the good times, I started thinking about how life is an ebb and flow. Of course, that would explain why my writing good times and hard times also have an ebb and flow. Knowing that life has a cyclical nature helps us to keep going during a tough time because it's almost certain tha...

Fantasy writer Stephanie Shackelford is our guest today explaining how Toastmasters helped her become a better writer. She realized one day that what she learned about making better speeches was spilling over into her writing. While Stephanie has found that it's in the rewrite process that she's seen these improvements, I was listening to her and thinking about changes I could make in my plotting...

When thinking of the short list of well-known science fiction writers of our time, when thinking about some of the most prolific writers of our time, Ray Bradbury's name is bound to come up. I saw a presentation he did in 2001 in this YouTube video and he presented an exciting challenge to writers. Write 52 short stories in 52 weeks. Wow! At first, it boggles the mind. But Ray gives so many exampl...

Sometimes we are so busy trying to be polite, trying not to get too full of our own achievements, that we miss out on the simple joy of accepting a well-meant compliment. Or we're worried about having offended or irritated someone and we can't seem to accept it when they say they're not offended or irritated. This is a particular problem when we writers refuse to accept that a friend or a relative...

James Scott Bell is a Christy Award-winning and International Thriller Writers Award-winning author in several fiction genres, and a beloved and sought-after writing teacher. He has written many nonfiction titles on the craft of writing, including several for Writer's Digest Books. In today's episode, Jim talks about how he got the idea for his craft book, Writing From the Middle . He wanted to wr...

Whether you're first starting out, or you've published several books, choosing which story idea to work on next can be difficult. We're creative and we've generally got a lot of ideas! Since I started writing when traditional publishing was pretty much the only way to go (unless you wanted to fill your garage with boxes of books and try to sell them yourself), I followed the traditional advice: do...

Sometimes my creator brain gets nervous. It doesn't want to come out and play in public. Maybe it's nervous that someone won't like what it created. What do we do when that happens? The first step is to recognize the signs - are you putting off your writing or other creative endeavor, finding so many other things that "must" be done first? That happened to me this weekend, and it took a while for...

In 2016, author Tracy Reed decided to try to write and publish 12 titles in 12 months. She managed 13. This is her story. Tracy published her first novel in December 2014, then two more shorter titles in 2015. After a conversation with me and another writer friend, she decided that if other writers could publish a dozen or more titles a year, so could she! Each month found Tracy writing one book (...

Coming down off the holidays, I'm saying I'm going to eat better, but I still have some Christmas pecans I need to make. Standing in the kitchen, I'm thinking of recipes and how they work for any part of life, not just baking or cooking. For instance, the brownies I'm famous for came from a recipe my sister made years ago that I really liked. Over several years, I kept tweaking the recipe to make...

I love new beginnings, and I'm a big fan of hitting the Restart button at any time. But sometimes we wonder if what we're doing right now is good enough. Is it the right idea or should we be working on something else? Then I'm reminded of the mustard seed, a tiny seed that can grow large enough that birds of the air nest in its branches. That's encouraging! Until I think about how seeds have to be...

Marcy Weydemuller is an editor, writing teacher, and author of books for kids and adults. Today she is talking to us about setting. In many genres, setting is practically a character in the book. But a silent setting can also have quite an impact. It can be a mirror or a shadow of the character, the tone, or the atmosphere of any novel in any genre. Marcy shares a few examples of different kinds o...

I've been teaching a class called Going the Distance: Time and Project Management for Writers nearly every year for over a decade. I love it because I love helping people find a way to get what they truly want out of life. But how do you get what you want without sacrificing the wants and needs of your family? Sometimes you need to do what you like to do together, regardless of what other people t...

I recently listened to a keynote address by Ray Bradbury given in 2001 at The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. In his presentation, Ray says that writing shouldn't feel like work, he wants people to envy him his joy. Writing should be fun! That really got me thinking about how I can emulate Ray's joy. For one thing, I can focus on the things that worked...

Today's guest, Kathleen Damp Wright, shares her stories about how doing in-person research for her novels is more fun and yields more interesting results. It also leads to more focused online research later. Kathleen Damp Wright is the co-author, along with Lauraine Snelling, of The S.A.V.E. Squad series for middle grade readers ( Dog Daze , The Great Cat Caper , Secondhand Horses , and No Ordinar...

The difference between dreams and New Year's resolutions and goals is all in your head. How much do you believe in the dream? How committed are you to the resolution? A goal requires belief, commitment, and planning in order to achieve it. Although I recorded this episode in late December 2017, I want you to remember that you can always hit the Restart button, no matter what time of the year - or...

In this first Encouraging Words episode, I encourage you not to let yourself get overwhelmed by kids and parents and finances and (un)employment and health and everything else in your life. I can't write when I'm stressed out and scared, but I'm a total planner. So how do I keep a balance? At some point in the last few stressful years, my husband said, "Let's just try to stay in today's box." His...

Our guest today is Jacqueline Diamond, author of over 100 novels as well as  How to Write a Novel in One (Not-So-Easy) Lesson , a book of lessons and helpful tips to help writers create better stories. A former Associated Press reporter and TV columnist, Jacqueline Diamond has won a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times magazine, has finaled twice for RWA’s prestigious Rita Award, and...

Chances are you own at least one blank journal. People have probably been giving them to you as gifts for years. Now you finally have a use for one of them! :-) There are at least four reasons why creating a Done Journal will help you in your writing career. For one, it shows the IRS or other taxing authority that you are not a hobbyist. You are actively pursuing a writing career and are officiall...

Welcome to the WRITE NOW! Workshop Podcast! I'm your host, Kitty Bucholtz, and I want to encourage you to believe that you can write a book and change the world. In addition to writing, I also love teaching, and helping writers is one of my favorite things to do. On this podcast, I want to help you improve your writing and move your writing career forward. Each week, there will be three short epis...