Do you have a dream of publication?
Then you’ve come to the right place! Jody has a heart for encouraging and teaching aspiring authors.
Jody’s Blog is a chronicle of her writing journey. She offers advice, encouragement, and inspiration based on all that she’s learned about writing, publication, and marketing in today’s tough publishing industry.
Click a title below to expand each section.
(All material is copyrighted)
Pre-Writing Planning:
Developing Characters:
Getting Started With the First Draft:
Basic Writing Mechanics:
- 5 Tips for Writing Better Settings
- 7 Point-of-View Basics
- 7 Setting Basics That Can Bring a Story to Life
- 7 Dialog Basics That Can Help Tighten Our Stories
- Developing Dazzling Dialog
- Cliched Writing: Avoid it Like the Plague
- Learning to Find a Balance in Showing Versus Telling
- Using the 5 Senses to Make Our Stories Jump Off the Page
- Spicing up a Story With Similes and Metaphors
- 5 Ways Writers Get Lazy
Taking Your Story to the Next Level:
- How to Make Your Book Play Out Like a Movie
- Why Every Story Needs a Zombie
- 4 Ways to Add Caffeine to Your Story
- Riveting Our Readers By Using the Death Factor
- Writing Tight: 3 Pieces of Advice I Wish I’d Known Earlier
- Creating a Book Readers Can’t Put Down
- 4 Ways to Deepen Romance Relationships in Any Type of Story
- 10 Techniques for Getting Tension on Every Page
Editing:
- 3 Simple Stages of Self-Editing
- Self-Editing: When is Enough, Enough?
- A Self-Editing Checklist
- Why Every Writer Needs Feedback
- Most Writers Are Blind to Their Own Faults
- Every Writer Needs as Much Editing as Possible
- Why Skimping on Macro-Editing Could Cost You Readers
- Why We Need to Put Our Books to Bed
- How Much Editing Does a Contracted Book Get?
- 3 Tests That Can Help Us Handle Difficult Feedback
- 4 Ways to Find a Critique Partner
Querying:
Time Management & Growth:
- 4 Ways to Make Yourself Complete a Book
- How to Set Writing Priorities
- What Keeps You From Writing?
- One Trick That Helps With Meeting Daily Word Count Goals
- 8 Ways Writers Can Push Themselves to Grow
- 5 Foundational Areas to Focus on for Intentional Growth
- When Writing Demands Cut into Other Priorities
- 4 Ways to Make Your Writing Schedule Work
Every writer needs to keep learning and growing in the craft of writing. Jody has compiled an extensive list of Helpful Writing Books that can help you in your efforts to push yourself to the next level.
Jody has also made available her Character Worksheet. This character worksheet was specially developed by Jody to make her characters come alive. Feel free to use all or parts of it in your own writing process.
