By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills At the Blue Ridge Conference, our faculty has a heart for helping writers. These instructors sacrifice time and energy to provide the tools we need to advance in the publishing world. They schedule a time to talk to us one-on-one. They listen to our tripping over…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills A writer’s brand is a red carpet of introduction to readers and the publishing industry. It’s an identity that shows genre and demonstrates what others can expect from writing projects, social media posts, and anything attributed to the writer’s name. Branding is not a marque in…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Plotting is unique to each writer’s personality and method of structuring a novel. Some writers are married to their outlines. Some are seat-of-the-pants writers, and some are organic—that’s a mix of both with the story ideas as the focus. Once we’ve established our type of plotting,…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Some writers are terrified at the prospect of finding an agent. We think literary representation is the one factor that will get us published when the key is writing an outstanding book. But let’s say we’ve already written a fabulous project, what is the agent/author relationship?…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Getting our writing life organized may or may not be one of our personality traits. But today’s writer must incorporate organizational skills into her social media practice, or she will be overwhelmed and fail. [tweet_box design="default" float="none" inject="@DiAnnMills #BRMCWC #SocialMedia"]Organization - the Secret To a Writer’s…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills When I started writing, I was so excited about the future. I had dreams, goals, my workday organized, notepads and pencils beside my computer, and a whole lot to learn about writing. But there are 10 surprises that hit me along the way to publication. Sure…