Merry Christmas, Wordplayers!

Christmas is in twenty-five days. Twenty-five days. These last few months have blown by so quickly, it’s hard for me to get my head around that. So let me wish you a wonderful holiday full of friends, family, food—and lots of time to reflect on God’s blessings in your life.

As always, I have to take a moment myself to reflect on the blessing that you—the Wordplayers who subscribe to this e-letter and read the blog and my books—are to me. I’m honored to get to be a part of your day, and thrilled when you stop by the site or Facebook or Twitter to be a part of mine. I feel very blessed to be a part of the global writing community and to be sharing art and craft with all of you every single day. So thank you!

In other news, my dieselpunk novel Storming releases in just a few days on December 4th! I hope you were able to take part in all the fun giveaways we did throughout the month. There’s still one day left enter the latest, for a one-of-a-kind Shakespearean bookend.

And of course, check your email on the 4th to find out about the BIG Launch Day Prize. If you missed all the fun Storming extras this month, you can still watch the trailer, find out what inspired the story, and see my photographs of the real-life locations in the book!

Featured Book: Structuring Your Novel Workbook

Containing hundreds of incisive questions and imagination-revving exercises, this valuable resource will show you how to:

Implement a strong three-act structure
Time your acts and your plot points
Unleash your unique and personal vision for your story
Identify common structural weaknesses and flip them around into stunning strengths
And so much more!

Buy the Book

“Turning a manuscript into a book is easy; getting the manuscript ready to become a book is hard.” ― A.P. Fuchs

Drawing Winners

Twice a month, I randomly draw four names from among e-letter subscribers.

The winners receive their choice of digital media from among my books.

This month's winners are Heidi, Pat, Angela, and James Beckman.

I will contact the winners directly. Congrats to all―and good luck to everyone else in the coming drawings!

Things to Ponder

What writing-related gift are you hoping Santa will give you this year?

November Article Roundup

Most Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 45: Avoiding “Said”

How to Write Funny Dialogue

6 Steps to Create a Fantastic Narrative Voice

The Easiest Type of Character to Write

How to Write Can’t-Look-Away Chapter Breaks

Busting 6 Strong Female Character Stereotypes

How to Write Multiple Antagonists

7 Easy Ways to Research a Historical Novel

How to Choose the Right POV

Your Questions Answered: Trouble Outlining

Q. I have so many different ideas in my head that, even though I have special files for all my plot ideas, I don’t know which to start with, and I worry I won’t have time enough to write them all. Also, I usually can come up with only part of an outline, not the whole thing, so I’m afraid to begin writing because I don’t know what’s going to happen next, and I don’t want to abandon the project. Any advice for a fellow writer?—Lacey Deaver

A. An overabundance of ideas is never a bad thing! To begin with, I recommend you check out this article about how to decide which idea to write next.

As for struggling to complete an outline, there are two possible answers to this:

1. You might discover you’ll work better without completing the outline. Some authors prefer to outline a little, write what they’ve got, then stop to outline some more. Nothing wrong with that if it works for you.

2. You may find inspiration for outlining the whole story by exploring story structure. If you understand how the whole story fits together, you’ll have some guidelines for what needs to happen where in your story.

Contact Me

Have a writing question you’d like answered? I respond to all emails and will publish one question a month in this e-letter.

Email Me

“In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.”