Stephanie Hurt – Romance Author
This WordPress.com site confirms all things are possible through God!
It’s been a long week so far between tax season, having a little cold, and pollen counts going higher. But, let’s toss it all up and make what’s left of the week amazing. Juggle the pieces of your life and stay alert. Don’t drop the ball. You’ve got this! Just don’t juggle your coffee, because we do cry over spilled coffee!
As I sit here, sipping my coffee and getting my mind ready for the day, I’ve been thinking about my current WIP. It’s been such a refreshing new project that I’ve enjoyed working on.
Now, I could have stayed with my usual genre and kept the water smooth and ripple free. But, that wouldn’t be fun. I’ve been writing romance for several years. My genre ranged from sweet romance, to paranormal. So, how is my current WIP different?
My current WIP is a Christian Suspense Romance. What is that you may be asking? Well, it’s a clean romance that has Christian elements, along with suspenseful and thrilling parts, but as always that some romance sprinkled in. And with it being Christian, you know that it won’t be too over the top gory or crude.
So, I went from keeping the waters calm and smooth, to tossing a pebble and wrecking the calm waters. And it’s the best move I’ve made in a long time. I can’t wait to get it out to my readers because I think they’ll fall in love with the characters and be glued to the story. It won’t be anything you expect either.
Ripple the water… Make a change… Get a refreshing new look at romance…
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
You read that right. I said tea… Sometimes I do drink hot tea. Usually I grab an herbal blend, green tea, or spicy cinnamon. This afternoon I have a stuffy nose, so I’m grabbing some therapeutic green tea. Hopefully it will open me up and I’ll get my head back in the game.
Have a great afternoon!
This week is flying by. So much to do with so little time.
Lately I’ve been focusing more and more on being descriptive. I want my readers to take the journey with me, not just read it. It means more if they see the vision that I do when I’m writing. As I wrote earlier, show, don’t tell. It’s important to keep the readers interest and if they’re just reading words, it won’t. They’ll lose their train of thought. But, if you open up the world to them, then you’ll have fans for life.
For instance, in my current WIP, when Hadley is walking up the sidewalk, I get into the weather, the scenery around her and the neighbor that always stops her, keeping her from the tasks at hand. Also her little cottage on the sleepy street in the small town. I go into detail so that the reader has a sense of where she lives and during certain parts of the story, how close she is to possible danger.
So see, you have to be descriptive. Let your reader into your head. It can only make it better for them.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
We finally have a sunny, beautiful Sunday morning. The rain has been looming around for weeks, messing up the weekend. I’m thankful for the blessing of a nice weekend. It may be cold, but the sun is bright.
Here’s a little word for you on this beautiful Sunday morning. Live each day as though it was your last. Love with all of your heart. And Laugh until your sides hurt. Make it count people because you only get one chance at this thing we call life.
I write to release everything. All of the pent up stress just flows away when I begin to type the words that fill my head. And with that release, I can live, love, and laugh a little stronger. Try it!
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Wow, we’ve made it to halfway through February and tax season is in full swing. Glad I stocked up on coffee supplies in the office. Now coffee thirty not only happens mid afternoon, but now it can happen again mid evening. Long hours equal lots of coffee.
Feel inspired, caffeine up!
Good morning! It’s a soggy, cool morning here in Georgia. Sending prayers for all of those affected by the ice storm. Please stay safe!
Now, have you written a scene that makes you cry? I’ve written so many scenes that brought tears to my eyes. And I’ve had readers that said some scenes in my books made them cry. It’s always a compliment when a reader says I made them cry. There’s a difference in the writer crying and the reader doing the same thing. What? How?
This is my opinion on this matter. If I cry, it could be where I’ve been so dedicated to the WIP that I’m overwhelmed with emotion. Or If I’m killing off a character that I love, my heart is broken. But when a reader cries, that means that I did what I was supposed to do. I wrote with feeling and the reader understood it.
So, write that emotion with everything you have!
There’s a scene in Faith Through the Tears that makes me cry like a baby. I’m talking big, fat tears. One reader even mentions to have a tissue box ready.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
It’s already halfway through the week… SO, what have you achieved this week. Me, I’ve managed to get in a couple thousand words on Safe in the middle of preparing taxes, accounting, cooking, and life. Safe is coming along nicely and even my editor is getting excited. I love that I can keep her in the dark until she starts editing a section, then I get a text or call saying, hey, what’s happening next. Tsk Tsk, not telling!
Make it the best day ever and stay warm. Sending prayers to all of those in the icy zones of the country. Warm wishes and thoughts…
It’s barely above 25 degrees this morning here in Georgia. So, burr… It makes my coffee that much better, if that’s even possible. Anyhoo, today we’re talking Show, Don’t Tell… What? Yes, that’s I said. So here goes!
Have you ever read a book and you felt like you were there? Why? Because the writer put into words what the character was seeing. Of course sometimes in our own imagination, we see the world the writer creates. But, it’s important for a writer to let us see their world that is being created with words. Help the reader take the journey with you. And as a writer, you know what I’m talking about. We see the story in our head, but the reader doesn’t unless we let them in on the whole thing, not just the words.
What do I mean? Well, if your character walks out and it’s bitterly cold, then you want your reader to shiver. But how do you do that? Let’s go through an example:
Telling: Rose walked outside and it was cold. She got the mail, then went back to the house to warm up. (Ok, so here in this example, the writer is telling you it’s cold outside, but you don’t know how cold or anything further than it’s cold. This would work, but let’s try this again.)
Showing: Rose opened the door to an artic blast hitting her as she stepped outside. The temperature had dropped to well below freezing and the wind seemed to slice through her thin coat. The walk to the mailbox was bone chilling as she struggled to keep her jacket tightly around her. When she turned to go back to the house, she looked forward to the crackling fire that was waiting for her. The moment she shut the door, leaving the bitter cold outside, the warmth of the fire seem to melt the ice from her as she held up her hands to give them a good thaw. (Now, you feel the cold, the wind, and the characters reaction to those elements. Not to mention, it was more wordy so you made more of a punch. See the difference.)
So, with that, think about how you express things in your writing. The reader doesn’t know the wall is red until you tell them. But remember, tell them the shade red, how the red makes the character feel, etc. Get it. Now, go out there and write up a storm, literally.
As always, good writing and May God Bless You…
Good morning from icy Georgia! It’s below freezing and the precipitation falling isn’t rain… Time for the bulky sweaters that collect dust, but I keep them for just this sort of day…
Now, on to the post. Have you ever wrote a scene ahead of time? I keep a notebook beside my laptop for just this thing. And I label them as what they are. About 90% of the time I know in my head how the book ends and if I’m working on the first half and hit a snag, I’ll write the ending. It inspires me to push through the fog that clouds my thoughts sometimes.
But, will those scenes change and evolve as the writing prior to them does. Certainly, but it keeps you focused on the upcoming events. I’ve written several pages of scenes, then totally deleted some of them as the characters went in another direction. But it’s exciting to step ahead and see the future.
Did I say I could see the future? Yes, in my writing I can. So don’t ask me to read tea leaves or anything like that. I can’t see that kind of future. So, start looking ahead in your WIP and see what can be. It will help with the current part of the process.
As always, good writing and <ay God Bless You…
Stephanie Hurt - Romance Author 