Elizabeth Goddard Talks About Critical Alliance

Elizabeth Goddard

Critical Alliance is the last installment of my Rocky Mountain Courage series, so I’d already put a lot of elements in place. My series is set in a fictional county in southwest Montana. I chose Montana because the state would make a stunning backdrop for my action-adventure stories, and well, setting inspires me. Southwest Montana is the west gate of Yellowstone National Park, one of my favorite places in the world. My Uncommon Justice series was set in the Jackson Hole region near Grand Teton National Park, which is close to Yellowstone in Wyoming. Okay, I’ll admit—I kind of wanted to stay in the area with my Rocky Mountain Courage series because I love it so much!



My husband is from Montana and my love of the region is all his fault! I dedicated Critical Alliance to him.



For the characters, many of them were already in place from the previous books, but I still needed to flesh out my Diplomatic Security Services special agent Alex Knight. Alex was a character from the first two books who would become the hero in Critical Alliance. Of course, then I had to add his romantic interest—Mackenzie Hanson—and I didn’t know her.



For the proposal to my publisher, I created a blurb for the story. I usually have ideas for storylines and characters floating around in my head along with random plots points. I pull from that and start the creative process. The short summary I send to my publisher will change quite a bit during the writing process. In Critical Alliance, my characters’ names changed along with a lot of the details, but the main plot of the story remained the same regarding the high-tech company in Montana, a mysterious death, and a cyber security expert. My character, Mackenzie Hanson, was hiding information and she needed to hack into the company’s system.



I started figuring out the story by pairing my DS special agent with a cyber security specialist. The Diplomatic Security Services is a largely unknown federal agency under the State Department. Agents are responsible for protecting diplomats and embassies around the world, but they also combat visa and passport fraud, investigate counterterrorism, counterintelligence, cybersecurity. . . well, you get the idea. Because of Alex’s background I decided to increase the stakes by making Mackenzie a former illegal hacker. I had to dig deep into the cybercriminal world, and I worked with a cyber-security expert to learn what Mackenzie could do and what crimes were possible for a hacker to commit. The information I learned was somewhat terrifying, but I had an arsenal available to throw at my characters—which I did!



Once the setting and the characters were in place along with a general plot, then I needed to discover what kinds of things could happen to them in Montana. This is where the setting really plays a big role and can become a character too. I love adventure stories, but I try to pull in larger issues to create a high-stakes plot. I loved the characters, the setting and writing Critical Alliance. I’m going to miss Montana, but at least in my new series set in Alaska, I’ll get to spend time with one of my characters from Critical Alliance.

Elizabeth Goddard is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty novels, including Present Danger and the Uncommon Justice series. Her books have sold over
one million copies. She is a Carol Award winner and a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist. When she's not writing, she loves spending time with her family, traveling to find inspiration for her next book, and serving with her husband in ministry. For more information about her books. visit her website at www.ElizabethGoddard.com.

How I Write through the Pandemonium

Elizabeth Goddard

I was talking to a dear writing friend today about the nonstop chaos and drama of life happening around us. We met at the beginning of our writing journeys about twenty years ago and have remained close. For the first ten years of our careers, we homeschooled several children as we wrote novels. Our kids are mostly grown now and so that should mean a quiet house and more time to write. That hasn’t happened for either of us. If anything, the noise has grown louder, turning into full-on chaos. I’m not talking distractions. I mean one crisis after another.



A lot of writers might give up or at least put writing aside for a season. Of course, there’s a season for everything and that could be the right choice. But some writers count on the income and have contracts, so they’re committed to meet their deadlines and can’t put writing aside until the quiet reigns again.



If life is throwing too many literal twists and turns at you, how do you find time to write, especially when creative minds can struggle if stress levels are high?



If you’re feeling crushed under the pressures of life, I encourage you to take a deep breath—for your own sanity—and put all the demands away. That’s right—store them away into separate boxes. I’ve found that the best way to carve out time and give myself peace of mind so creative juices can flow is to simply compartmentalize. I love that word. It makes me feel in control every time I think about it. I’m only one person and I can’t do it all or answer everyone’s demands—at least all at once.



Of course, I don’t put my tasks in literal boxes, but I make “to do” lists. I write everything down, and then pick a date or a week when I will focus on one specific task or satisfy a demand. For you as an author, the most important box is your writing box. You open that one every day. Write during the best time of day for you. For me it’s in the morning before the day gets noisy and more demands require compartmentalizing.



You’re not alone in your struggle to carve out writing time and space to think. Do an internet search on compartmentalizing to give ideas on how to live a stress-free life and still get it all done.



If I can do it, you can too.

Elizabeth Goddard is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty novels, including Present Danger and the Uncommon Justice series.
Her books have sold over one million copies. She is a Carol Award winner and a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist. When she's not writing, she loves spending time
with her family, traveling to find inspiration for her next book, and serving with her husband in ministry. For more information about her books, visit her website at
www.ElizabethGoddard.com.

Three Basic Habits That Will Improve Your Writing - Part 2

Elizabeth Goddard

This is Number 2# on the Three Habits That Will Improve Your Writing:

2.

 Again, this advice is nothing new—write, write write—but it’s a requirement. Write something every single day. If you want to be a novelist, give yourself a word count or a time limit, whatever works for you and get those words on the page. Even if they’re awful words, once you’ve written them, you can always fix them. I have sometimes told friends that I’m slinging mud, meaning that I’m just throwing awful words on the page. It’s easier to fix the words than a blank page. In this process of writing every day, you also want to increase your skills. Read craft books on dialogue, story structure, etc. Since you’re reading more, you’ll build skills that will become natural, and you’ll also see where you need to improve. Another way to improve your writing is to judge a contest. The first contest I judged, I had that “Aha” moment and I knew what good writing looked like. I understood what kind of magic caught an editor’s eye, so I then tried to insert that “magic” into my own writing.

3.


But craft isn’t everything. I almost want to say that content is king. Your storytelling ability is equally important. I’ve taught a workshop on brainstorming ideas and finding inspiration. Along with reading and writing, you’ll want to train your brain to become an idea generator by looking for ideas every single day. Create a file and keep everything that snags your attention. At some point you won’t be able to turn the idea machine off. Then you’ll learn how to find the best idea to create a novel or a series out of what you’ve collected.



Within each of these essential daily habits, I expanded on the tips so you can see just how far you can go by taking advantage of the basics to become a better writer.



The sky is the limit!


Happy reading, writing and story crafting!

Elizabeth Goddard has sold over one million books and is the award-winning author of more than fifty novels and counting, including the romantic mystery The Camera Never Lies—a 2011 Carol Award winner. She is a Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense finalist for her Mountain Cove series—Buried, Backfire, and Deception—and a Carol Award finalist for Submerged. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, traveling to find inspiration for her next book, and serving with her husband in ministry. For more information about her books, visit her website at www.ElizabethGoddard.com.

Three Basic Habits That Will Improve Your Writing - Part 1

Elizabeth Goddard

So much has changed in the publishing world since I first started writing for publication in 2001. I distinguish writing for publication from simply writing for fun because, for me, there truly is a different mindset when writing with the hope that an editor would acquire my manuscript or that an agent would sign me. That mentality allowed me to take writing seriously. Sure, I could have fun with it. If I love what I’m writing, that’s going to shine through. But my goal to write something I could be proud of, something professional and publishable, meant I had to learn everything about how to improve my writing.


With the tremendous increase in the need for written content, the number of writers has also increased and hence the competition. In my opinion, there’s never been a better time to be a writer. That said, the bar is even higher. If I want to stay relevant as a novelist, even now after fifty novels, I must continue to educate myself, improve my skills and learn new techniques.


Aspiring writers often believe what they’ve written is amazing. I’m guilty, so I’m not pointing fingers. It isn’t easy to truly see how your writing compares or fully understand how much better you need to be before you start sending your work out.


Ask any multi-published experienced writer about those first attempts—those manuscripts that never sold that are now stuck in a drawer. Often, you’ll be told the writing is awful and the story would need to be rewritten. Or in some cases the novel did sell, and that writer will tell you she cringes that anyone read it. I’m both of those writers. I have manuscripts that should never see the light of day, and I have works published that make me cringe. I’ve been able to get rights reverted to most of my first novels and I plan to rewrite them, using my experience and the well-developed skills to create a much better book. Now, years later, I can easily see how they can be improved.


How does any of this help a new writer? Understanding that writing is a journey is key. Getting from point A to point B requires travel time—your mileage may vary.


The idea is that you should never give up. You’ll get there one day. Good writing, great writing—for most of us—doesn’t happen overnight. To give an example . . . You can’t expect to take one guitar lesson this week and play at Carnegie Hall next weekend. To get to Carnegie Hall, you’ll need to practice your guitar several hours every day, while learning new techniques and excelling at them. Getting there might even take years. While gaining exceptional skills playing the guitar, you’ll also need to develop contacts who can help you get where you want to go professionally.


But everyone must start somewhere. The three basics to improving your writing are:

1)      

You’ve probably already heard this writing advice—read, read, read. It’s true and it bears repeating here. There’s no getting around reading wide and reading often if you want to excel at the writing craft. At one conference where I was a mentor, I had breakfast with an aspiring novelist who wasn’t sure what she wanted to write. I asked her what she enjoyed reading. Her answer? She hated to read. I admit I was so surprised that I wasn’t sure how to respond. Let me put it this way, you can’t be a great writer if you don’t even like to read. In the case that you want to be a good writer, or a better writer, then you’ll want to read more. Read as much as you can. There have been seasons during my writing career that I found it hard to find time to read, but I’ve remedied that. Every evening I set aside time—thirty minutes or an hour--and I read for pleasure and usually that’s in my genre because I love to read what I love to write. I read my favorite authors along with new-to-me authors. Reading also increases your vocabulary, stimulates your brain, improves your memory, focus and concentration. I could go on. But most important to an aspiring writer—reading intuitively makes you a better writer.



Let’s say you want to write romantic suspense novels. Reading those novels will give you the sense of pacing and romance you’ll want to put into you own novels, and you can do that without too much thought because it will come naturally to you.

 

Novel Inspiration

Elizabeth Goddard

       Ask any writer and she (or he) will tell you that she started out as an avid reader from a very early age. Maybe that’s the true moment when a writer starts writing, or at least learning to write. All the novels we read during our formative years serve as a foundation and teach us about story structure, plot, and characters. So, it makes sense that reading novels planted that seed of desire in me to become a writer. Once I became a published author, people I met often told me they wanted to write a novel one day. I hope they were able to make that dream come true.

For me that dream simmered for a couple of decades until I had my first child. I ended up resigning form my corporate America job to stay home and raise my daughter. It was during those years I found the time to commit to writing that novel. But first, I had much to learn about the craft and as much as I could about the publishing industry. I attended my first writer’s conference in 2001 and never looked back.

      Some of my favorite authors early on were Bodie Thoene. I devoured her Zion Covenant novels. I also loved Gilbert Morris and Jack Cavanaugh. I loved reading Christian historical romances, and it was their influence that motivated me to try to write historical romances. I put writing in that genre aside and now write romantic suspense—and that’s another story completely! Now I read romantic suspense and thriller authors. One of my favorite writers is James Rollins and I’m making my way through his series of action-packed novels. I believe all these authors I’ve listed have given me a good sense of how to keep the tension elevated and leave readers highly entertained.

      I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I believe the best writing advice I’ve ever received is to read, read, read because it helps you to keep on top of your game and keep pushing yourself to improve. To that you must add one more thing—you must write, write, write—and that’s a winning combination for aspiring writers. I don’t think I’ve ever heard any bad or wrong advice because anything that keeps you writing and pursuing your goals is good.

      With so much reading and writing, eventually I figured out who I wanted to be when I grew up as a writer or rather, what I wanted to write. That turned out to be an adventurous romantic suspense filled with action and stunning settings. For me, setting comes first. Setting is my inspiration. I love to travel and have visited and lived in some amazing places. I look for a setting that touches me emotionally and spiritually. A scenery that inspires me and usually that’s going to be a mountainous landscape or a rocky coast or a designated wilderness area. A bonus is that these types of settings lend themselves to action and adventure.

      Next I begin the research process which includes diving into the location where the story will be set, learning more about my characters and their jobs, and also discovering everything I can about the suspense premise—the crime. I read everything from books to blogs and watch YouTube videos and, most importantly, I talk to experts. Usually I will end up with more material than I could ever include in a novel and keep things moving and entertaining.

      In writing Covert Cover-Up, guess what? —I started with setting. The story is part of a series set around the Mt Shasta region of Northern California. I decided to use Castle Crags State Park as the backdrop for my story and I already knew the perfect character—someone I had previously created who was just waiting to climb out of my story files and into a novel where he could step off the pages and take a breath. My hero, Beck Goodwin, is a world class rock-climber. With those all-important elements of a stunning setting and my rock-climbing hero settled, I then focused on the suspense plot. I thought it would be fun to throw in the feel of a spy story, so in that way, Covert Cover-Up is unique because it’s an action-adventure tale of romance and intrigue. I pulled out all the stops and I hope that readers will enjoy a powerful emotional experience, be wholly entertained, and be encouraged that God is always with us.

Elizabeth Goddard has sold over one million books and is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of more than fifty romance novels and counting, including the romantic mystery The Camera Never Lies—a 2011 Carol Award winner. She is a Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense finalist for her Mountain Cove series—Buried, Backfire, and Deception—and a Carol Award finalist for Submerged. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, traveling to find inspiration for her next book, and serving with her husband in ministry.

 For more information about her books, visit her website at www.ElizabethGoddard.com.