Lessons in Courage

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 9 Comments

Easter is one of the most beautiful times of the year. Spring is in the air, our hearts are filled with hope, thanks to our Lord and Savior,  and everyone seems to have a lighter step. But, this Easter my heart and my steps were heavier.

After fighting one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer for an astonishing nine years, my niece lost her battle. I’ve never seen such a fighter.  When life handed her lemons, she served lemonade.

Our hearts were heavy, but as one person after the other shared their stories, our hearts filled with inspiration and hope. Her generosity, tenacity, determination, compassion, humor, and courage left us with the desire to live like Lori.

Lori refused to let her disease define her, rob her of the joy of life, or the pleasure of raising her sons. She didn’t fear death, she feared not living. Lori looked fear in the face stared it down, and kicked!

Lori Caulder Crooke

Bravo Lori. You will forever be an inspiration of strength and courage.

Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run, it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down. – Eleanor Roosevelt –

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood,  Pinterest,  Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

 

Happy Easter

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

 

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood,  Pinterest,  Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

What I learned Writing My First Novel Draft

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 12 Comments

the-novel
I’ve completed the first draft of my novel! 78, 131 words. Whew! Although the genre is different from most of my writing these days, it was the first story I began more than three years ago. It wouldn’t go away, so I decided it was time to put it down, once and for all. To stay motivated, I joined a group challenge. I put the period on the last sentence on March the  12th and boy, it felt good! Now, the real work begins.

Here’s what I learned.

  1. Find motivation to get the words down. Whether a critique group, one-on-one writing partner or challenges like the one I participated, or a do-or-die daily writing schedule – sign on. Accountability is a strong motivator to keep going.
  2. Stop your obsessive editing and rewriting! Make notes on the manuscript and keep going. You will have more than enough time to edit later.
  3. Develop a method for keeping up with the details –This is something that screamed with each added chapter. I use Scrivener and love it. It’s an excellent resource for writers and has many tools which help you organize your novel. However, I discovered I need something more. I created excel spreadsheets, (several) to keep up with the details: Character, Settings and Timeline, Threads, and Novel Map (more about those later).
  4. Start planning the next steps – there are quite a few: determining whether you want to use Beta readers, finding the right editor, rewrites, researching your genre, agents, and publishers, writing a synopsis, author bio, cover designs, determining your publishing platform, and outlining a marketing plan. I’m sure I’ve missed a few but more on each of these later.
  5. Enjoy your accomplishment. Many writers never get to the end – you did. 
  6. Keep writing. Whether it’s on to your next novel, prompts, short fiction, blog post, or article – keep stretching those muscles.

I’ll have more posts in the next few weeks outlining my journey from First Draft to publication. Hopefully, I’ll be able to offer you a few tips, resources, and an inside look at the experience.

If you have any tips or resources you would like to share with the fence jumpers, join the conversation, or better, yet, contact me for the opportunity to be a guest contributor on these topics, for the Cow Pasture Chronicles.

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood,  Pinterest,  Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

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HOW TO FORMAT YOUR MANUSCRIPT

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

MS-format

 

I have just completed my first novel draft, and I can tell you, my brain is fired! Although I use Scrivener and don’t know how I’d write without it, I like to verify formatting against the industry standards.

Lara Willard had provides an excellent three-part series on novel manuscript formatting.  I’ve provided links to all parts, including her free download. Thanks to Lara for a great resource. I hope you enjoy her articles as much as I did. These are keepers.

 

Part 1: via Formatting your Novel Manuscript

Part 2: Hard-Core Manuscript Formatting

Part 3: Download a copy of her free MS FORMAT TEMPLATE.

 

 

 

 

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. I’m all ears and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood,  Pinterest,  Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram. You can follow my reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.