The love of writing

Do you love what you do? Whether you’re an accountant, doctor, writer, factory worker or a housewife, you have to love what you do. It helps keep you going. I love writing. I also love being an accountant and children’s ministry director. It makes things so much easier when you love what you do.

When I have a story in my brain I look forward to every time I open my laptop. It’s exhilerating just getting the story out to everyone. Maybe what goes through my brain doesn’t appeal to you, but some people like it. According to some of my adoring fans they love it, which for a writer is awesome to hear. That means I’ve accomplished part of my goal and thats to reach someone with my writing. A couple have asked me several times, where on earth do you get all these story lines.

What’s fun is when you’re writing and you actually laugh out loud or wipe tears. One of the stories that I’m working on is a Christian romance that is about grief and going beyond the loss of a spouse to find love again through faith. As I wrote the death scene I kept a box of tissues next to me. I wrote it while thinking of what if this was me. How would I react or feel? How would I handle telling my child? How would I move on from there? It was a very eye opening experience.

That’s what the “Lean on Him” series is all about. It’s to help people realize that faith can get you through life’s many facets. Life throws so many things at us and sometimes we need to be reminded that we are stronger than we think.

Another thing I love about writing is living my characters lives through their eyes. I emmerse myself in the character and imagine the way I’d respond to certain things. I get to live anywhere in the world through my characters. I get to experience things, ride horses, own a ranch, go to Switzerland (childhood dream), and so much more. Through my characters I get to right wrongs, build faith and just be myself. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Fans help make it a wonderful experience also. Hearing from those that love my books helps inspire me. It’s great when someone sends me an email and asks when’s the next book coming out. Some fans keep up with me through this post, my Facebook, Twitter and other areas. It’s awesome to talk to someone from across the world that has been touched by something in one of my books. That makes it so worth every long night, neck strain, finger trauma and everything that comes with being a writer.

So, come join me for the adventure that is a Writer.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Special Giveaway to Offer

Special Giveaway to Offer.

Special Giveaway to Offer

Audible.com has honored me with 25 free audible book coupons for “With All My Heart” and “Moonbeam & Roses”. So here is how this works. The first 25 that message me for each book at stephaniehurt4@gmail.com will get a code to get the free audio book. Please state which book you are entering for. I will announce the winners as soon as all spots are gone. So watch your email and good luck.

So, don’t delay. The spots will go fast. Don’t forget it’s free, so why not.

Following the crumbs…

I’m just going to say it. Yes, I started another work in progress. I readily admit I have a problem. It’s called writers overload. I have way too many stories spinning in whats left of my brain. The story is the Christmas story that should have been started over a month ago, but I was working out the pieces and how to’s. I’ll give you a little hint, it’s going to be part of a lifetime dream of mine. I’ll get to live out my dream in fiction.

As for writing, we have to follow the crumbs to get to the goal. Each chapter, each outline piece is a crumb. Sometimes the crumbs are more visible than others. When the crumbs are large and right in front of us we can write for hours without stopping. Then other times the crumbs are so small that we have to search for them. That’s when writer’s block comes in and our mind strays away from the task at hand.

When writer’s block hits you have to step back. The more you try to get it back, the further you’ll push it away. Maybe it’s another story that needs to be finished that’s taking over. Maybe it’s something in your personal life like a load of laundry that’s calling out to be put away. Go put it away and then sit back down.

Another problem I have is the inevitable sore neck from sitting over the laptop tapping out my thoughts. I’ve learned that when my neck gets tense I have to step away for a little bit. The tense feeling overwhelms the writing ability. It takes over the thoughts and ideas. Usually I do some neck rolls and stretch, then take a little walk to loosen up. If you’re not careful it will compound itself and the next day will be out completely.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday. Enjoy this day and remember, it’s only another day of the week, try not to think of it as Monday. Yeah… Right… Time for more coffee 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

When the story throws the outline out…

If you’ve followed my blog for very long you know I’m a outline girl. As soon as a story comes into my head I sit down while it’s fresh and outline it from start to finish. It helps so much especially when you get a case of writers block and need to be reminded of the story.

Well, I’ve been working on a manuscript that is outlined already, but guess what, the outline is going astray. As I followed it for the first eight or so chapters, but things have changed. A couple of the characters just won’t cooperate and now I’m forced to change the outline. Thank goodness it wasn’t set in stone. Things change right? Well as for this story they do.

Sometimes we have to accept change and just go with it. I try to go with the flow in everything I do, but my writing has always been streamlined or I tried to keep it that way. The outlines have always kept me on track, but this story just wants to speak for itself. So as any writer will tell you, the story has the ball and it’s the stories game. So I guess I’ll play nice and see how it goes.

As always, great writing and May God Bless you…

Early Saturday musings…

Well it’s Saturday morning and I’m up. I had planned on sleeping in this morning, but my body refuses to sleep past six and the characters in my mind speak loudly.

As I sip on my coffee and ponder the days activities I wonder. What do I wonder about? Well, I wonder what would happen if I put the manuscripts that need to be finished aside and start a totally new one that’s plaguing my mind? Why is it when a writer has a manuscript deadline, there’s always another story getting in the way.

I’m going to push the new storyline aside until at least one of my manuscripts is finished. Of course I will feed the musing with a quick outline to make sure the storyline stays fresh inmy mind. Hopefully that will make the musing step aside for a little while at least.

What are you up to this Saturday? Something wonder filled or maybe a house cleaning, or possibly working on your beloved manuscript? As for me I’ll be doing a little of both. My house needs a good scrubbing and my manuscript screams for attention, so I’ll work on both.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Being whatever we want to be…

I’m a big kid, not just at Halloween as you can see, but in everyday life. My way of thinking is this, if we stay a child at heart how can you grow old. I know in numbers I’m almost 45, but in my heart I still get giddy at Halloween, Christmas and all the other holidays. My heart still pounds when I see buckets of candy. Well, that could be the chocolate rush, but it still beats harder with excitement.

Last night was our annual Church Trunk or Treat and it was a blast. We had so many children come through and they were very creative with their costumes. It was wonderful to see all my little Children’s Church peeps and the many guests dressed in their favorite theme or character. Of course being the Children’s Minister it’s only right that I go all out with my costume and my decorations. I included my sons pumpkin on the tailgate with balloons, posters and buckets over flowing with candy. The weather held up for our celebration.

As a writer you can be whatever you want to. You can be that character and feel that characters happiness, sadness, anger, love or whatever they feel. We are able to change the ending, making it what we want. Why wouldn’t anyone want to be a writer? Well for one thing it’s not as easy as it looks.

You have a story come into your mind. At first you think, this is going to be easy. You may sit down and write the story in your head and then realize it only lasted 5 pages. As a writer you have to expand that story. The descriptions have to be expanded to allow the reader to be drawn in. Remember the story you hear in your head is real to you, but the reader doesn’t have it in their head the way you do. You have to put it in their mind. We have to help the reader see it as we do, which means it has to be detailed out.

If you say, “I see a rolling green hill”. Well the person reading this will only picture a hill of green grass. If you want them to see more then say it more like this. “As I sit here, I see a hill that goes beyond the eye. It is covered in wildflowers that are vibrant with color. The sky is dotted with a few fluffy white clouds and the blue is in deep contrast to the green grass. It is a breathtaking sight to behold.” See how you draw in the reader and help them to see what you see.

Hope everyone had a safe Halloween and take it easy on the candy.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…