Demanding Miracles Have you ever had an overwhelming problem or issue?  Was there some circumstance in your life that seemed beyond your ability to handle it?  Have you ever called out to God, Buddha, guardian angels, The Force, your higher self, Mohammed, Mother Earth, whatever name you give that spirit?  To find an all-encompassing name without prejudice towards any one belief system, I’ll just...

Dealing with Discouragement I can’t name a single writer whose career has been without discouragement. We’ve all dealt with rejections, non-responses, bad reviews, losing a contest we were sure we’d win, having someone laugh at us when we share our career goals… What sets apart the successful writers from the unsuccessful ones, in part, is the way we deal with these discouragements. Let’s take ...

Defeating Writer’s Block If you’re a writer, or a student, or anyone who’s ever felt the desire or need to write, you know all about the dreaded thing known as writer’s block. You sit at the computer, or your’re at your desk with a pad and pen, ready to write. But nothing happens. Your mind is drawing a complete blank. You feel as if you’ll never be able to string even five words together into so...

Deciding on the Number of Characters in a Short Story In our desire to write a story that is packed with insights emanating from different types of characters representing widely divergent point of views, we end up with so many characters who are either too underexposed or too vague for the readers. So how many characters could we put in and develop effectively in our story, without confusing ou...

Get Your First Sale! Nothing beats the joy of your first sale. You can plot, plan, market and dream all you want, but until you get that first sale, you’re not sure that you have a real business. It’s 25 years since I sold my first book to an international publisher. I walked on air for days. To my mind, because real writers wrote books, I was real writer at last. Your first sale legitimizes wha...

Full Contact Storytelling Nearly every storyteller has experienced the frustration of telling to these audience members: the clock-watcher, the doodler, the hair-twister, the squimer, the talker, the bored acting, the heckler, ect. But these characters are reminders that sometimes we all forget the most important ingredients in our storytelling program – personal contact and meaningful interactio...

Frequently Asked Questions About Children’s Writing I HAVE A STORY I’VE WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN. DO I NEED TO FIND SOMEONE TO ILLUSTRATE IT BEFORE I CAN SEND IT TO A PUBLISHER? No. In fact, in cases where the author of a picture book is not also an artist, the publisher prefers to find its own illustrator for the book. The reason for this: often a publisher will match up a new author with a more e...

Frequently Asked Questions Storytellers Are Often Asked and How They Answer When I tell people that I am a “storyteller” right away they fire back a slew of questions. In this article I am going to share some questions and answers from two of my favorite storytelling friends. These mini-articles appeared originally as posts on the StoryTell List. Whether or not you are a storyteller and/or a list...

Fourteen Ways a Solo-Preneur Generates Income An author has many potential revenue streams. Let’s face it: until you actually do manifest a mega-bestseller (and not just make it onto the list) and sell hundreds of thousands—or millions—of books, you’re not likely to be living off your publishing royalties. For this reason, it’s important for authors to diversify their offerings and continually tr...