Meet Betsy
Welcome to my virtual studio. As both a writer and designer, I’m driven by a curiosity about the world. In my studio, I take that curiosity and use it to create new worlds. I write for kids and adults as well as a good deal of freelance non-fiction. Explore to find out more about me, my books, and my thoughts on writing as well as the thoughts of friends who stop by the studio. If you’ve got something you’d like to share reach out to me through the contact form. I’d love to hear from you. Scroll down to read what’s been happening in the studio.
Editing The Kitchen Sink
You’ve thrown everything into the first draft, now how do you take that mess and turn it into an amazing novel? This article takes you through the steps of the early editing process.
Getting Started On Your Book Trailer
If you’re an indie author a book trailer is an attention-getting way to promote your book. An effective trailer can hook potential readers like nothing else. I knew I needed one for Heroic Care, but creating one seemed overwhelming. When I dug in I learned it really wasn’t. I thought I’d share my insight to help you guys get started on your own book trailers.
Writer’s Toolbox: Table of Contents Plug-In
If you think a Table of Contents app sounds like the finishing touch for your writing project you’re very much mistaken. This interactive document organizer is essential to how I build my drafts and manage my editing process.
Writer’s Toolbox: Capitalize My Title & Canva
It’s good to look professional. Today we highlight two tools to help. Canva will keep all your graphics looking outstanding. Capitalize My Title will make sure your work gives the right first impression.
Writer’s Toolbox: Slides & Number Generator
This is the first of a new series on writing tools and resources. In this, we highlight Google slides, number generators, and coin flip as tools for getting your ideas organized and flowing.
Meet Lori Snyder & The Writer’s Happiness Movement
The Writers Happiness Movement offers free happiness tools for writers such as free weekly online yoga, breathwork, and meditation; free online retreats every …
Finding and Hiring A Freelance Illustrator: Three Tips From An Illustrator's Perspective
Having been on both sides of the writer/illustrator relationship at different times in her career, Ariel Mendez understands how difficult it can be for an author to find and afford an illustrator as well as how to work with a freelancer once you’ve found one. In this article, Ariel shares the insight she’s learned with us.
Synopsis How-To
My biggest problem is making my plot seem free-flowing and captivating in the synopsis form. Years ago I got the advice that a good novel needs to be nothing more than, ‘A captivating story told with words that sing.’ The synopsis should reflect that. But how?
A Dialogue-phobes Guide to Writing Believable Dialogue
Ask me to create a setting or a mood? No problem. Words flow out of me like a thawed river set free. Write a sex scene? Easy! (Hey, there is very little dialogue necessary here). But, make my characters talk to each other…hmmm.
Have no fear though, there are solutions. Even I, a queen dialogue-phobe, have found ways to work through dialogue blocks and get my hands moving across the page again . . .
Games and Writing: Shared Worldbuilding
In my pandemic-induced sense of writer’s block, though, something strange happened. The players – many of whom are writers. or artists, or game designers, or photographers, or even musicians – would ask questions about the world they were playing in, and I would not have the answers they sought. I was forced to make it up . . .
Structuring A Great Story
If we think of it as architecture, plot is your unique stained glass window made up of all the tiny bits of beauty that are your unique story. Structure is the stone walls that hold it, less dazzling but equally important. Without a good structure, everything else falls apart.
Jumping Into The Right Critique Group
Building your writing community is like throwing a stone into a pond. You, your work, and the act of putting yourself out there is that stone. The outgoing ripples are the connections you make with the world.
Often, finding a reliable critique group is more of a journey than a quick, one-stop transaction. Critique groups are not one-size-fits-all. To find the right group for you, you’ll need to look inward and ask yourself what you want to get out of the collaborative experience. You might need to try on a few groups for size before finding the one that fits you best.
Practice Writing
Free writing, or practice writing as Natalie Goldberg refers to the exercise in Writing Down The Bones, is one of the best tools for writers of all levels from the person looking to write their first piece to the seasoned writer needing to break through an endless block and reconnect with their lost or forgotten muse. Timed prompt-writing never fails to jump-start one’s creative flow, lead a writer to discover their voice, or strengthen the voice already in place.
The Three Camps of Book Publishing
With 38 years of experience, Jim DeFilippi has done it all: traditional publishing with HarperCollins, independent publishing with, The Permanent Press, and direct publishing. So far his total book output is in the 30s— crime, humor, history, screenplays, stage dramas, even some poetry, and even a cookbook. Today, he gives us his take on the world of book publishing.
Pick Any Direction
“It doesn’t matter what you pick, just choose a definite direction and go with it until you realize it’s wrong. Then go in a different definite direction.”
If the idea of picking a direction seems obvious, consider the hours you’ve sat staring at a blank screen trapped between whether your main character opens the door to the basement or not, says yes to the date or slaps the guy, breaks down into tears or throws a plate at the wall. Maybe you try to do both and end up with something middling and half-baked. Maybe you chose, then waiver. You write a page, second guess, delete back, make the other choice, waffle, delete, go back to the first. Then you think of a third choice and the cycle begins again.
Weather to Write
Does your muse pull the blankets over her head and give you her most confident you-don’t-tell-me-what-to-do-dearie sneer at the sound of a driving rain hitting the window panes? When the sky is the perfect summer cloudless blue and warm sun is streaming down, does your muse blow you off and head to the beach?
Weather affects our moods. Weather affects our productivity and our creative flow. It only makes sense that the weather can also affect our muse.
How do you entice her back you ask? There are . . .