A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Last week I wrote about maintaining the valuable connections we have with family and friends. Family in particular. If you missed that post you can find it by CLICKING HERE. VIEW BY CLICKING HERE This week I want to share the valuable connections we have with colleagues. It doesn’t matter what kind of work you do, there are always others working with you or beside you. Even in writing. To some, writing may seem to be the most isolated type of work there is on the planet. You sit at a computer all day in a quiet space, typing out everything in you onto a blank screen. But of course there’s more to it than that. You grab people to give you their input. You interview people to make your characters more realistic. You have beta readers tell you what they think. You work with editors. You communicate with the graphic artists working on your book cover. You have colleagues. One of the most beneficial relationships I have is with fellow authors in Ohio. I belong to some great...

Connect: a  verb. To bring together; to make contact; join together; provide access and communication This week I’ve been thinking about the word  connect. Connecting is not just bringing together, but joining together and communicating. I’ve been blessed with many deep and lasting connections. I’ve established many such relationships through teaching and writing. At first, I wanted to write about those kinds of connections and encourage fellow writers to seek out those relationships.   But the most important connections are those with family and close friends. Those relationships take root around the dinner table or at church. They are founded in walking through this life…through both the good and the bad together. They are so much a part of our everyday life we often take them for granted.  This past week, my sweet aunt, my mother’s oldest sister, died. She was ninety-three. Aunt Flora loved her family. She loved her church family, too. A st...

  10 Minute Novelists, an online writing group held their first-ever face-to-face writing conference this past week in Cincinnati. Attendees interacted with incredible speakers like James Scott Bell , Donald Maass , and Janice Hardy . What a line-up!   Always Cool to Hang Out With A Best Selling Author Like James Scott Bell I’ve always said if you can walk away from a conference with one great idea or changed in one way, it has been a successful conference. I walked away from this experience with so much more. Though I hope to share tidbits of information gathered from the conference over time, I want to offer you words from James Scott Bell. These words resonated with me and reminded me of the roots of my writing. “Write like you’re in love,” he said.  If you are a writer, you’ve had those stories, posts, or ideas that captured your imagination. You poured yourself out on the page. You invested yourself in the story. You found yourself constantly thinking...

Overflow. My word for the year.  As some of my readers know, I choose a word each year. During the year I see how that word plays out in my life. I try to keep a list of examples of how I see that word in my life and Bible verses where it appears. This year I chose the word  overflow . I chose it because I want to recognize those areas where my life is full. Full and overflowing. I chose it because of God’s promises. I chose it while I was in Kosovo. My Sweet Friends, Bob and Lina When I returned to America in June, I put little thought into the word. I couldn’t even find my small notebook where I tracked examples. It didn’t matter. My heart was indeed full. I hugged my children and grandchildren. I held my mother tight and reveled in the closeness of my family.  I gave little consideration to my word for the year until …there was water on the bathroom floor.  I thought my toilet overflowed. I wondered when it happened. I asked my grandkids. Nobo...

Last week I talked about my writing business.   I am the CEO of my writing business—along with everything else. I’ve noticed that many large corporations offer workout rooms for their executives. Physical exercise makes for good mental and physical health. I get it. I engage in physical exercise; but since I’m a part-time writer, I do the physical exercise on my “own time.”  I do, however, exercise my writing muscle on a regular basis. This is during my scheduled three-hour workday but apart from my big projects. Generally, I only go to one part of my writing gym each day to get my writing off to a good start. I refer to these exercises as time spent in my writing gym.  Benefits to Engaging in Writing Exercises Abound So here is a little tour of my writing gym, the workout stations you’ll find and how each of these exercises benefit you as a writer. These work for me. Try them but feel free to explore other forms of writing exercises that meet your needs. ...

CLICK HERE TO SEE Yes, I view my writing a passion, a gift, a calling, if you will, but it is also a business. I discovered that side of things when I received my first book contract. My initial and quite simple business plan (read “write, find a publisher, and get published”) morphed into a plan to include what might be called research and development, production, marketing, and networking. Within this business vernacular I could easily define my “what if” sessions as my “think tank” and the rough drafts I create as “prototypes.”  The Work Day Writing is a business…my chosen line of part-time work. I set my hours and goals. I determine how much time and energy I will invest each day. Since I am most productive in morning, I like to schedule my working hours from 6:00am to 9:00am. That isn’t particularly difficult for me. I am generally up by five every morning.  CLICK HERE TO SEE I like to write a minimum of a thousand words a day, though I rarely track the...

Last week I wrote about reverse culture shock. I think it may be my last entry regarding my adventure in Kosovo, though the people and experiences there will always be a part of me. I’m sure references to Kosovo will resurface from time-to-time. My oldest daughter, Allison, and I talked about the blog on a recent trip to the beach. I started “A Novel Creation” to take people interested in writing on a journey with me as I crafted a novel. I shared what I learned about writing with my readers. And I sustained that work from January 2013 until I left for Kosovo in August of 2017. Yep, I posted a blog about writing every Wednesday for over four years. Of course I had a few guest posts along the way. If you’ve been following me for this past year, you know my full attention has been given to sharing the experience of living abroad. As Allison and I talked, I realized the blog has morphed into sharing me as a “novel creation.” I’m not alone. We all are novel creations. All created ...