Category Archives: The Shea Method

When you’re writing a book, you’ll soon find out that writing is more than writing the story. It’s also the title and perhaps the subtitle and the dust jacket (also called a book synopsis) and a synopsis (which is different than the book synopsis) and the list goes on. When I was on the secondContinue reading “A Writing Tip to Find your Title”

We all write from the world in which we know. If you’re a white person like I am, then your characters may start off as all white. I know best how I think, feel, and move through the world. But while that may be true for me, I can’t possibly give my readers the essenceContinue reading “A Writing Tip to Share Space”

We can’t spend all our time writing alone. We spend too much time in our own heads as it is. You writing will drastically improve if you join your local writing group. Writing groups help you balance the internal struggle of dreaming to be a writer while feeling like a literary potato. In other words,Continue reading “A Writing Tip for When you Feel Like a Literary Potato”

Publishing is a beast and as soon as you start trying to tackle it and wrestle it to the ground, you realize how much there is to still learn. This is the time to bring together the artist/creative and the business/sales person and learn how to make them coexist. It wasn’t enough to know whatContinue reading “A Writing Tip to Find Your Reader”

We all have aspects of writing in which we excel and aspects in which we’re terrible. It’s important to be able to identify both. If you feel that you are terrible at writing, you’re probably reading your work too closely. This is a good time for beta readers or to walk away and work onContinue reading “A Writing Tip for Fixing Holes”

When I first introduce myself as a writer, I generally say that I’m a novelist. But the truth is I enjoy writing in many different styles. I’ve written plays and short stories and personal narratives. In high school, I got really interested in writing poetry and raps, which I wrote by hand in a journal.Continue reading “A Writing Tip for Finding your Voice”

I can spend a lot of time thinking about writing but not feeling confident enough to write. I made major headway on this self-imposed obstacle when someone told me, “You can’t get to the final draft until you’ve written the first draft.” It’s so simple. It’s so obvious. And yet. Sometime you need to hearContinue reading “A Writing Tip that’s Hard to Swallow”

It can be just as hard to find good books on writing as it can be to find a book with good writing. As someone who searches for both and aims to be a good writer, I found a mentor in Paula LaRocque’s The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well. Here’s whatContinue reading “A Writing Tip from America’s Coach”