Brainstorming Etiquette

by Lynette Eason

Writing can be an incredibly isolating venture. For those of us who are introverts, it’s not a big deal. We actually like the “aloneness”. However, whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, there are times during the writing process where we need to come together with others and brainstorm.

Brainstorming is an amazing process. For example, I was having a hard time figuring out where I needed to go next in my story. I had a situation where I needed a teen to leave the hospital and disappear. But I didn’t know why I needed her to do that. At least not completely. I had a vague idea. 

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What makes for Successful Booksigning Event? It's all in the Perspective...

by Lynette Eason

Successful or not successful: It’s all in the perspective.

Hi everyone, Lynette Eason here. I just wanted to take a moment to talk booksignings with you. Let me be honest. I like MOST booksignings about as much as I like the pollen that makes me sneeze and lunge for my inhale. Okay, okay, that might be a slight exaggeration—slight. But I just wanted to give you a heads up that if you’re eagerly planning your first—or fiftieth—signing, some are going to go well and others are not.

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Writing With Chronic Pain

by Lynette Eason

I don’t know about y’all, but the older I get the more my body lets me know it’s not on board with the whole idea.

When I was younger, I didn’t worry about getting older. I still don’t worry about it per se, but since being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, I’ve had to make a few lifestyle changes. However, in spite of all of my efforts to be healthy, there are still bad days and good days. And since I never know from day to day how I’m going to feel, I have to make the most of the good days.

So why bother with the writing? Why do something that causes me stress and pain?

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First Page Punch - Keep Your Reader Engaged from Page One

By Lynette Eason @LynetteEason

As a writer, I’m deathly afraid of writing a book that a reader is going to pick up, read the first page, and be bored to death. Keeping that fear in mind as I write, my first goal is to immediately engage the reader in the story. That’s where the First Page Punch comes in. (Yes, I made that up.) What I mean by this is, my first scene starts off with action. And I don’t mean boring action.

You don’t necessarily have to have a car chase with bullets flying and bodies dropping, although that’s great if you do, but you do need to have something happening. Save the backstory and introspection for later.

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Throw Your Words into the Refiner's Fire

by Lynette Eason @LynetteEason

Perfectionism is a lofty goal. It’s not a bad goal, just not a very realistic one. That’s not to say we should have the attitude of: “Well, I’ll never get it perfect, so I should just give up.” Absolutely not. We should strive to do the best possible work that we can do, but not become discouraged because it falls short of perfect.

I remember taking gymnastics lessons and I would work for hours just to get the form right. We practiced in front of mirrors and I had to consciously think about how to hold my body, was my form right, were my movements smooth and graceful? And my instructor would correct, reposition—and encourage. But I never got it perfect.

And you know what I learned? Practice doesn’t make perfect.

Yep, I said it. LOL.

That’s the bad news. But, the good news is, practice does bring improvement and growth and skills we can implement. Every time we practice, we come closer to “perfection”.

The above words can be applied to anything in life, but for this purpose, let’s apply it to our writing. A lot of people think their writing has to be perfect before an agent or editor will be interested in signing or acquiring it. Guess what? It doesn’t.

That is not to say, it doesn’t have to be good, maybe even great, and that one doesn’t have to develop the skill to write in a way that capture their attention, but it doesn’t have to be perfect.

I look at it like this.

Someone is always going to know more than I do about writing. Someone has already walked where I’m getting ready to step. If I’m willing to listen and to soak in that person’s wisdom and have the attitude of: I want to learn and grow as a writer, therefore, I’m going to be teachable and follow the leading of my instructor, then growth is going to happen, my skills are going to sharpen, and eventually, someone in the publishing industry is going to sit up and take notice.

That’s my experience anyway. I had mentors, I went to writing conferences, I learned from the best in the business—and eventually, people noticed.

I say all that to say this. Be like clay in the hands of a master.

Malachi 3:3 says: He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.

Zechariah 13:9 says: “I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.”
A refiner uses a fire to heat metal to a molten state, then skims off the dreg that floats to the top. The dreg is worthless. It’s trash that needs to be discarded. But underneath is pure silver, a metal that can be made into something beautiful, something worth noticing, something valuable.

I think this is a wonderful way to look at writing. Let those who’ve gone before you be like the refiner. Be willing to immerse your words into the fire so that the dross can float to the top and be discarded leaving you with a piece of work that, while maybe not perfect, is beautiful, valuable and noticeable.

What do you think about this? Have you had someone in your writing career who has been your refiner? How did this person make a difference in your writing career or life?

Happy New Year!!


TWEETABLES

Throw Your Words into the Refiner's Fire by Lynette Eason (Click to Tweet)

Practice doesn’t make perfect~ Lynette Eason (Click to Tweet)

Be willing to immerse your words into the fire~ Lynette Eason (Click to Tweet)

Lynette is also the award-winning, bestselling author of almost forty books. She writes for Revell and Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line. Her books have finaled or won awards in contests such as The Maggies, Inspirational Readers Choice Award, The Carol, ECPA Book of the Year, and The Selah. She is also the 2016 Daphne du Maurier Award winner in the Inspirational Romantic Mystery/Suspense category and Overall Daphne Winner this year. Her most recent achievement is placing in the top 10 out of thousands of entries in the James Patterson co-writing competition. Lynette and her husband Jack live in upstate South Carolina with their two teenagers. Lynette can often be found online at www.facebook.com/lynette.eason , @lynetteeason (Twitter) , and www.lynetteeason.com.

Lynette Eason just released her first Indie novella called Lethal Homecoming. It's a short read, but packed with suspense and romance. Feel free to check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/zs8dtcr

Six years ago, danger sent Callie Ainsworth running, and now all she wants is to go home to Tanner Hollow. She’s received word that the danger is over, so she is free to be reunited with her mother and sister. When someone tries to kill Callie before she even reaches the driveway, she realizes she's made a horrible mistake and danger still lurks. But this time she's not running away.

Nolan Tanner had loved Callie as a teenager and has never gotten over her sudden, unexplained departure. When he rescues her from a killer on her first night home, old feelings come rushing back. Still angry at her for leaving him six years ago, he soon realizes she had good reason for taking off--and that he's still holding out hope for a future with her. Can he catch the person who wants her dead and convince her she needs to stay home for good?

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Breaking Through The Writing Wall

by Lynette Eason @LynetteEason

Recently, I had something happen that I’ve never experienced before. I hit a wall. A writing wall. I had the story in my head, I had part of it on paper and yet, I couldn’t seem to sit down and just finish the thing. Which was really bad because I had a deadline looming.

I have to admit that after almost 40 books, this experience was rather unnerving. I mean I would open the manuscript and just stare at the words I’d written. However, I wasn’t quite ready to panic yet. I was actually rather intrigued. I’d heard about writers’ block, of course, and while sometimes I’ve had to sit and think before putting my hands on the keyboard, I’d never actually been “stuck” to the point where I just couldn’t figure out which words to type. So what’s a writer to do when that happens?

Here are a few things I’ve done to get the words flowing again.

1. Pray about it. Here’s kind of how my prayer went. God, I love you. I know you love me. To be honest, I’m not really feeling it because while you gave me this story to write, the words aren’t coming. So…could you please give them to me? Sometimes He does, sometimes not.

2. Go do something else. If God doesn’t lay the words out for you right away, it could be that you just need to do something else. Yes, even on a deadline, stop the story and go to something else. Like work on the next story you have in the line-up. Or go watch a movie. Or read a book!

3. Set a tiny goal. Come back to the story that’s due and tell yourself you’re going to write just fifty words on it. And even if those fifty words are awful, at least you can fix awful. You can’t fix blank.

4. Stream of consciousness writing. Just write about what could happen. Do you need to introduce a new character? Does a character need to die? What is something that could happen that your reader would never expect—mostly because you didn’t expect it either. I mean, seriously, you could just be writing words and more words hoping that something will make sense. And then your heroine’s best friend ends up dead in the bathtub! WHAT??? But that’s another story altogether…(yes, that happened to me in Don’t Look Back.)

5. Exercise. WAIT! Don’t hit me…but yeah. It works. It gets the blood pumping and sometimes that blood seems to carry an idea or two to the brain. Try it. And besides, it’s good for you. And if you do that, you don’t have to feel guilty eating chocolate later.

6. Write first thing in the morning. Like early. I don’t know why that’s my best writing time, but it is. When I get up, if I’ll jump right on the story, I’ll get some of my best words of the day in. And if I wake up at 3:30AM (like I did two mornings ago) I don’t lie there and toss and turn, I simply get up and start writing. Even if I couldn’t think of a thing to write two hours before I went to bed. For some reason, the words decided to come at 3:30. I wrote over a thousand words before I started getting sleepy again. I went back to sleep around 5:30 and slept until 8:00 so lack of sleep didn’t ruin my whole day and I already had most of my word count done.

So, there you have it. Six ideas to knock through that writing wall. Don’t get discouraged, don’t get frustrated, just keep writing. What about you? What do you do when you feel like you’ve got writer’s block? Any great tips for getting past it?

TWEETABLES

Breaking Through The Writing Wall by Lynette Eason (Click to Tweet)

6 Ways to Get the Words Flowing Again~ Lynette Eason (Click to Tweet)

Lynette Eason is the award-winning, bestselling author of almost forty books. She writes for Revell and Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line. Her books have finaled or won awards in contests such as The Maggies, Inspirational Readers Choice Award, The Carol, ECPA Book of the Year, and The Selah. She is also the 2016 Daphne du Maurier Award winner in the Inspirational Romantic Mystery/Suspense category and Overall Daphne Winner this year. Her most recent achievement is placing in the top 10 out of thousands of entries in the James Patterson co-writing competition. Lynette and her husband Jack live in upstate South Carolina with their two teenagers. Lynette can often be found online at www.facebook.com/lynette.eason , @lynetteeason (Twitter) , and www.lynetteeason.com.

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When You Don't Feel Like Writing

by Lynette Eason @LynetteEason 

What do you do when you don’t feel like writing? Gasp! Not feel like writing? Is that even a real feeling?

Um…yes. Unfortunately, it happens. At least to me. Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do. I adore my job and the flexibility it affords me. Believe me, I don’t take it for granted. But I don’t wake up EVERY SINGLE day thinking, “Oh boy! I’m just so excited, I can’t wait to hit the keyboard!”

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All about loving and dying and inspiring...

Lynette Eason is the best selling, award winning author of the Women of Justice Series and the Deadly Reunions series. Since 2007, she has written/contracted thirty-six books. Currently, she writes for Revell and Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line. Her books have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists. She has won several awards including the 2013 Carol Award for WHEN A HEART STOPS. Lynette teaches at writing conferences all over the country. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and Romance Writers of America (RWA). Lynette can be found online at www.lynetteeason.com and www.facebook.com/lynette.eason and @lynetteeason on Twitter.

Lynette, you've published how many novels? 

I have six published novels with Revell and six more in the line up. With Love Inspired Suspense, I have fifteen published and seven more to be released. I’ve also got an e-book short published by Revell that is a SHORT sequel (10,000 words) to the Women of Justice Series. I also did a free e-read for Love Inspired Suspense that released on the harlequin website in July.

How long did it take you to get a full-length fiction contract? 8 years.

Was there a specific 'what if' moment to spark this story that just won the Carol Award?

When A Heart Stops is the second book in the Deadly Reunions series. There wasn’t really a “what if” moment. At least not a conscious one. I wanted to write a book about a Medical Examiner and I loved Serena’s character from the Women of Justice series so I simply uprooted her, gave her a backstory and planted her in the middle of this series. LOL.

Do you have a full or part time day job?

I have a part-time teaching job. I teach sign language at an online public school.

If so, how do you balance your writing time with family and work?

I don’t really balance it…I seem to juggle pretty well, though. LOL. Seriously, no words of wisdom on this one. I just do what I have to do.

Did anything unusual or funny happen while researching or writing this book?

I went to the morgue and was totally grossed out. Found out I do much better with my imagination than I do real life. How funny is that!

Do you consider yourself a visual writer? If so, what visuals do you use? Nope. I don’t use visuals. I only look for pictures of what my characters look like when I have to turn in information for the cover of the book. I just see everything in my head.

Are you a plotter, a pantster, or somewhere in between?

I’m definitely in-between. I call myself a PLantser. I write until I need to know what happens next, then I plot, then write some more. With the Love Inspired books, I’m more of a plotter because I have to be. I don’t like it, but I do it to sell. Ha.

Have you discovered some secret that has helped your process for writing? No real secrets, just some things that work for me. And what works for me may not work for someone else. J

What are your thoughts on critique partners? 

If they’re good and don’t try to change your voice, then they’re a great idea. If they start making the story their own, then you need to ditch them.

Do you ever pound your computer over writer's block? If so, how did you overcome it?

Novelists sometimes dig themselves into a hole with implausible plots, flat characters or a host of other problems. What's the most difficult part of writing for you? The story’s TIMELINE! I seriously can’t get keep up with what happens when. I’ve had to really work on this.

What's your strength in writing (characterization, setting as character, description, etc)?

Probably characterization. I get a lot of emails from readers saying how they identify with one character or another.

  

Where do you write: In a cave, a coffeehouse, or a cozy attic nook?

I work best at a café or somewhere like a Panera or the Barnes & Noble Bookstore café. I don’t know why, but I can focus so much better while there. I also work in my office which is in my bedroom. It’s a mess.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard? Keep writing.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

If you’re not yet published, don’t despair. Keep working, keep writing, keep learning and keep submitting. I love to hear from my readers. If you’d like to stay in touch, you can sign up for my newsletter (which goes out pretty sporadically, lol) at www.lynetteeason.com (new website coming soon!!) and find me on facebook at www.facebook.com/lynette.eason. Thanks for stopping by Novel Rocket and thank you, Yvonne, for having me visit. J

Back cover for WHEN A HEART STOPS – released October 2012

Spunky and outgoing, nothing much bothers medical examiner Serena Hopkins--except for the thought of falling in love again. But when a serial killer is picking off her former classmates, Serena's life becomes intertwined with her old high school crush, FBI agent Dominic Allen. Is the secret she's keeping putting her next on the killer's hit list? Can she trust Dominic with the truth before it's too late?

Intense, emotional, and fast-paced, When a Heart Stops will have readers up late as they race to the finish to find out what happens.

Back cover for NO ONE TO TRUST – releases January 2014

Summer Abernathy wakes up one morning to find her husband missing, three men in her home intent on finding him, and the life she's been living based on a lie. Which Kyle Abernathy did she marry? The computer programmer she met in line at the bank? Or the one who was apparently using that image as a cover story?

The search for her husband--and answers--takes Summer ever deeper into a world of organized crime where people are used one moment and discarded the next. And with her deepest relationship of trust already shattered, Summer doesn't know who to believe.

Always thrilling, Lynette Eason outdoes herself in this taut, breakneck story of lies, loyalties, and love that will have readers up all night to discover the truth hidden in the shadows.

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