Seeking Excellence & Adhering to Christian Values
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About Ali Dent

Ali Dent is an author and story lover. She grew up in Georgia and was educated at Berry College where her heart for writing was trained and nurtured. She currently resides in Texas with her family. In the end, all things are made new.

Why do you want to write a book and tell your story?

What holds you back from telling your story? Ideas are like a flooding rain in my mind. I have more thoughts about stories and concepts than I can work with until I sit down and focus on the one idea that I’ve decided to turn into a book. At that point, a drought settles in which is usually followed by doubt.   What was I thinking? Why do I think I can write a book? Ali, if you were a real writer, you could pick an idea, outline it into a sequence and write a story or nonfiction book.   The pressure from my inner voice tempts me to procrastinate until I give up. However, if I had listened to the naysayer in my subconscious, I would not have 12 books for sale on Amazon.   So, how does a writer move from procrastination to publication?   Today, I want us to look at what I believe is the most important step for a writer to go forward and that is to answer a very personalized question. Understanding your deepest motivation for writing your books is not the only tool a writer needs to move from procrastination to publication, but it is a big one. The #1 question to answer before writing a book Why do you want to tell your story?   The answer to that question is your BIG STORY goal. Knowing this fact will carry you through doubts and negative self-talk about becoming a writer.   Goals [...]

By |2018-04-09T00:13:06+00:00July 14th, 2017|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on Why do you want to write a book and tell your story?
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Do Less, With More Focus: Five Tools for Managing Your Distractions

I used to end my writing sessions feeling unproductive and defeated—like I had wasted so much time with nothing to show for it—until one day, I learned something about managing distractions that changed my writing career. It’s much easier to write about solving the problem of distractibility than it is to live out the process. With practice, we can take control of our writing time and complete each writing session with a sense of accomplishment. Rest assured—all successful writers face distractions and need a plan to fight them.     The Parable of the Distracted Baker Once upon a time, a girl decided to make a fresh blueberry and apple pie. Her neighbor across the street had a blueberry farm and an apple orchard divided by a wide river with a bridge connecting them. The girl crossed the street with two baskets in hand. She started at the blueberry farm because it was on her side of the river. She’d only picked a handful of blueberries when the wind blew in from the direction of the apple orchard. She inhaled deeply, relishing the sweet aroma. Her mouth watered as she thought, I want an apple. She set her blueberry basket beside the bush where she was picking and crossed the long bridge to the apple orchard. The orchard spread out as far as she could see. The girl picked a few apples for her basket and one to eat right away. Oh, it tastes delightful, she thought, the perfect blend [...]

By |2018-04-09T00:07:49+00:00May 26th, 2017|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on Do Less, With More Focus: Five Tools for Managing Your Distractions
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Outlines: What Every Writer Ought to Know

Outlines are like road maps. You can get to your destination without one, but you run the risk of chasing rabbit trails, or even worse, getting lost. It’s the same with writing a book. If we don’t know the end, how can we write the middle? Outlines solve that problem for us. Think of a book as a vacation destination. When my family goes on a trip, we Decide ahead of time where we want to go How long to stay What to do while we’re there. Your book has a final destination. You have imagined what you want your book to accomplish. You know what you want for your readers. What you want your readers to walk away with after reading your book is the thesis or goal. Every step, every chapter along the way ought to draw your reader closer to your imagined outcome for the book. Therefore, thinking this through ahead of time will make your writing time more efficient, enjoyable, and in the end, produce a high-quality product for your readers. What every writer ought to know about outlines Outlines make writing more efficient Planning and writing use different parts of the brain. Switching gears from planning to writing and back to planning isn't an inefficient use of our brain power. Since planning and creating use two different parts of the brain, we will save time if we spend time planning the logical progression of our book before creating the text. Creating is more fun this [...]

By |2018-04-09T00:07:49+00:00April 28th, 2017|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on Outlines: What Every Writer Ought to Know
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3 Ways to Avoid Writing RoadBlocks

No one ever said the writing life would be easy. Navigating my way around the roadblocks that get in my way is hard work! Self-discipline, determination, and confidence get me past the obstacles that bog down my progress. "The trick is not in becoming a writer; it is in staying a writer. Day after week after month after year, staying in there for the long haul.” — The Art of War For Writers, James Scott Bell, p. 12 Most writers know what it feels like to suffer from writer’s block, and we’ll talk about that another day. Today I want to take a look at the writer's roadblock and how it prevents aspiring writers from realizing their dreams. On some level, the idea of becoming a writer seems like it ought to be an easy career. We’re drawn to writing because it makes us feel happy when we do it. I feel at home when I put words on paper. Writing is simple; the words come effortlessly, and nothing stops me when I'm writing because the mood has struck me to write. However, a career as a writer can’t rest on whims. If you’re a newspaper reporter, your editor expects copy from you for the next addition. She has deadlines to meet. Therefore, you have deadlines to meet or get fired! Entrepreneurial writers, like authors, bloggers, and contracted writers need self-imposed goals. The hitch is that we must set our personal deadlines and treat them as seriously as an editor for a newspaper sets time limits for her [...]

By |2018-04-09T00:07:49+00:00April 21st, 2017|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on 3 Ways to Avoid Writing RoadBlocks
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5 Steps for Writing a Mission Statement for Authors

Have you ever thought about your writing as a small business? Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? I’ve been writing, ummm… pretty much since I could hold a crayon. On the playground I corralled my closest friends together with a story we could act out during recess. In middle school when our English teacher gave group assignments, I usually found a way to make a story out of it, whether it was a group writing project or some way we could write a script to bring the project alive. I remember the day when I realized  that a wonderful way to organize my non-fiction books was to apply the main stages of a fiction story. See, I can’t do much of anything without thinking about story. If you’re a writer, you know what I’m talking about. It comes naturally to us. However, sorting out the business side does not come so easily to some of us. For me, I would much rather spend the afternoon with my characters than balancing accounts and working in a spreadsheet. Whether you’re published with a traditional or hybrid publisher—or if you are an indie writer—you and I can’t escape the business side of writing. Recently, I joined the National Association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs [NACWE]. I needed help with the business side of things and decided this organization, with its many classrooms full of lessons about building a strong business, was a good fit for me. This week on a members only video call, the speaker, [...]

By |2018-08-08T21:20:27+00:00April 14th, 2017|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on 5 Steps for Writing a Mission Statement for Authors
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What Keeps You From Writing?

I used to think writing a book would be just like writing a college essay or a creative writing assignment until I wrote my first book that was published in 2013. Granted, many aspects of the professional writing process were an uphill climb for me. However, setting limits on my time spent elsewhere to make room for writing was the most difficult step. Back then, I was homeschooling my two high school age sons, teaching a classical literature class, and managing my home. My days were filled with grading English papers or driving the boys to their math co-op on one side of a large city and to their lab science co-op class on the opposite side. We had an open door policy in our home—which meant people were in and out all the time. You may think, as I did dozens of times, "Why don’t you just set your writing aside and catch up when life slows down?" Guilt, exhaustion, thinking I needed time alone for me, or a phone call inviting me to coffee all interrupted my writing time on and off—until one day I made up my mind that the book was a priority. How do we mesh writing into our other responsibilities? When, if ever, should we say no to writing for the sake of another responsibility? In other words, how can I write my book without shirking my other obligations? These are the questions I had to answer for myself before writing my book could [...]

By |2018-04-09T00:07:51+00:00April 7th, 2017|The Art & Craft of Writing Toward Publication|Comments Off on What Keeps You From Writing?
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