When Joshua led his troops before the walls of Jericho, they first prepared. The soldiers made ready for battle by girding their loins and shouldering weapons. Writers can arm themselves with their own weapons of war, as they face the battle of the page.

From the humble mechanical pen to the latest computer application, wordsmiths have a plethora of helps and tech toys to make writing less daunting. Whether your genre is young adult, poetry, journalism or romance, you will need to fill your tool belt.

It’s a good idea to have a few basic references on your book shelf. A dictionary, thesaurus, and Strunk & White’s Elements of Style are great go-to volumes. You can also use online resources. Bartlby.com features the text of loads of reference books.

Most writers have access to a laptop or desktop computer, while others eschew technology and stick with pen and paper for a more organic experience. Gel ink pens seem to be more reliable than the old standby ballpoint instrument. If you have problems with hand cramping, consider an ergonomic model like the Yoropen, or Pilot’s Dr. Pen. While Moleskines are elegant and durable, they are pricey (large size is $12.21 on Amazon.com). A cheaper and somewhat perkier cousin is Post-Its covered notebook (4×6 size is $4.99 at Staples). Both options are portable, which is vital for today’s on-the-go scribe.

Other travel-savvy tools are the digital camera, smart phone and digital voice recorder (Sony makes one for $33.88 that holds 500 hours). A DVR can be used for both interviews and your own notes. Wired Magazine is a trusted resource for finding the latest gadget or software.

If you crave organization, index cards and a poster board can be utilized to plot out your next novel. Simply write character sketches and scenes on cards and then place them in chronological order on the board. Writer’s Project Organizer is a computer application that takes a novel from conception to birth. Scrivener for Mac OS X and RoughDraft for Windows are two popular writing software apps.

Calendars are helpful for scheduling writing and editing, as well as tracking agent and publisher queries and contest submissions. Cozi.com makes a great online calendar with notes and lists, as well as household organization tips.

Literary creators are a sensitive bunch and like to be comfortable as they write. Some prefer a quiet room with soft jazz in the background, a crackling fire in the hearth, scented candles and a soothing beverage, while others are drawn to a lively public location with lots of noisy activity.

Whatever weapons you use to wage war with the page, satisfy yourself. Nobody else sits in your chair, but you. En garde!

Former KWA member and celebrated Wichita writer and artist Irma Wassall passed away Jan. 26, 2012. You can view her complete obituary at Kansas.com. A celebration of her life is set for Feb. 5 at Piccadilly (see obituary for details).

Irma clearly had a tremendous influence on Wichita’s arts community. Do you have memories of her or her work to share? Post them below and we’ll start a KWA celebration of Irma right here.

We’ve talked before about the voices in your head suddenly going silent. But what if they stay that way? You’re stuck. A deadline is looming ever closer and there’s nothing on the paper but lint. Writer’s block is a familiar, albeit dreaded term that every wordsmith knows.

The holidays and all their hubbub are over. It’s time to get your butt back in the chair and get on with it. Start over with the New Year. Clean your desk and get rid of the brain clutter, too. Don’t let the post-Christmas blues cloud your creativity.

Have you ever painted yourself into a literary corner? Maybe you’ve reached a spot in your story that you can’t go beyond.  A cold, clammy feeling envelops your psyche. “Is it gone forever this time?” you wonder. Don’t beat yourself up, there is a remedy.

Go outside for some fresh air and exercise when writer’s block strikes. Read a few chapters of a great book (or a stinky one), a blog on writing craft or a few inspirational quotes. Ask a trusted friend to read your work-in-progress and give you some feedback.

When your writing time is fragmented due to work, family, or other commitments, it’s hard to refocus. Make a date with your story and keep it. Even fifteen minutes of keyboard pounding is one hundred percent more than no time at all. Waiting rooms and grocery store lines are great places to jot down thoughts and ideas.

If you’re stuck because you are not happy with the direction the story is going, reassess. Read over what is already written. Reacquaint yourself with your characters and their lives. Give yourself a creative pep talk and move forward without expectations. Allow your work to speak.

Creative Calisthenics is an excellent book by Terri Main, and a valuable tool for jump starting your prose motor. It all comes down to motivation. If the spirit is willing, the body will follow. In no time at all, your muse will be sitting on your shoulder, whispering in your ear again.

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”–Sylvia Plath

Bonnie Myrick and Hazel Hart’s new vlog — that’s short for “video blog” — Keyhole Conversations puts a new twist on the author interview. You won’t meet the author exactly. This is a fun way to give voice and characterization to main characters as they talk about the book, and their authors, from the character’s point of view.

So far, KWA members Conrad Jestmore, Arlene Rains Graber and B.D. Tharp have bravely channeled their protagonists to give us insight into their stories. Here’s Jimmy O’Reilly giving us his take on the events of River of Murder by Jestmore:

We think it’s a great way to give life to these people who populate our pages. Check it out, and consider: what would you characters say about you?

Take a peek at more Conversations:

• Tillie Dawson of B.D. Tharp’s Feisty Family Values
• Penny Wilson of Arlene Rains Graber’s A Plane Tree in Provence
• Visit the Keyhole Conversations Channel on YouTube

“You look ravishing tonight,” Marco breathed into the dark-haired beauty’s ear as he led her to the dance floor. The exotic sound of a tango filled the room and the couple embraced in a passionate dance.

While the first paragraph of this essay evokes romance and seduction, the emotion that a reader wants from an author is pure, innocent love. As writers, we should strive to attain that lasting kind of devotion from our readers; a faithful, monogamous relationship. Following are some ideas to build a life-long love.

Invite your reader in. Once you are comfortable in your genre, you can identify your target audience. Who are they? Why do they read mysteries or (insert your genre here)? Encourage them to read your product by building a web presence and blogging regularly. Writing is lonely work, but you must always imagine your reader looking over your shoulder. Keep them in mind as you labor.

Connect with your reader. Write with your reader in mind. What are their likes and dislikes? Put yourself in their place. Above all, share your heart. Vulnerability builds loyalty. We must create characters that our readers connect with on an emotional level.

Don’t frustrate your reader. Build tension, but don’t carry it on too long. You can’t hide the main character in your story forever without annoying your reader. Don’t leave them hanging in the end. They want something to take away, something hopeful, unexpected or thought-provoking. That’s what makes bookworms crave your next novel.

Respect your reader.  How can they benefit from your work? Remember, something you have written has the power to change a person’s life. You don’t want someone to read your stuff and forget it. You want your words to take up residence in their hearts and minds. Words are powerful. Treat them, and your reader, with dignity.

Stephen King, On Writing: “I think that every novelist has a single ideal reader; that at various points during the composition of a story, the writer is thinking, ‘I wonder what he/she will think when he/she reads this part?’ For me, that first reader is my wife, Tabitha.”

Several of our members are putting up rock-star numbers in the annual writing marathon known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo to its fans). The goal is to write 50,000 words of fiction before the clock strikes December.

It’s more than a random number and a personal goal. NaNoWriMo is a community event. You can keep a running log of your progress at www.nanowrimo.org, chat with other writers for support, and generally encourage one another to keep the word count coming. Some might view is as a stunt, others as a lark. But for the vast majority, it works because it sets up a challenge and a deadline that, frankly, most of us need to stay on task.

If you’re participating in this year’s NaNo, post your progress here too so we can cheer you on! Just use the comment section below.

It arrived in your email box yesterday. You’ve read it 20 times since then, and still can’t believe someone would say such hurtful things about your story. Receiving a bad review is not lethal, but it sure can gut your confidence like a fisherman with a striped bass.

First, if bad reviews send you into the depths of the mullygrubs, your psyche sandwiched between thick slices of doubt and insecurity, don’t read them. Your novel, like your child, may have its flaws, but strengths as well. If you are working towards perfection, then read everything critics say and slash away.

Vulnerability occurs when you are passionate about your work. That renders you sensitive to harsh criticism. Not everyone loves your book like you do.  When someone trashes your baby, you’re going to bleed. A blood-letting could be cathartic though, and lead to fresh growth.

The 2009 forest fire that burned more than 1700 acres of wilderness in Yosemite National Park sounds like a tragedy at face value. Actually, the fire was started by park rangers and was part of the natural process of clearing off dead vegetation and litter to “clean” the land. New grass and young trees have replaced the dead, charred undergrowth. It’s the circle of life, Simba.

Now think about your work. If you remove some of the underbrush, would it look fresh, young and alive? Perhaps the accelerant of a bad review could catch the spark of your story and bring out a verdant meadow of prose.

Learn the differences between a hatchet job and a sincerely critical review.  Is it a personal attack? Full of generalities? That review is straight from Satan’s lair. Don’t let it quell your confidence.

Remember that all reviews are subjective. The author has their own experience to draw as reference. Don’t let one poison pen send you packing. Glean what you can from the criticism and walk away, holding your head high. You have survived to join an elite fraternity, the Gloria Gaynor Guild of Highly-Criticized Authors.

Pay no attention to what the critics say.  A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.  ~Jean Sibelius

“It seems like yesterday when we sent Junior off to kindergarten, and now he’s starting college!”

“There, there, Marge, think of the bright side. Now we can put a hot tub in his room.”

Like parents sending their child off to college, writers must release their work for scrutiny and possible publication. Not unlike parents, authors may have trouble letting go of their little darlings. Locking your prose in a desk drawer feels safe. How will you know its true worth without assessment? Little Sarafina looks lovely in that gown, but no one will ever see her if you don’t let her go to the prom.

The goal of writing is not to hoard your stories, putting them in display cases with velvet ropes and spotlights. Sure, these monuments to your untested and immature creativity are treasured by you. If this is why you write, then you’re done. For those who seek publication, however, this is not an option. You can only mature and grow as a writer when you submit your work for critique.

Insecurity prevents budding writers from showing their work to others, be they literary professionals or average readers. Potential novelists may believe that if readers don’t like their writing, they don’t like them. “Don’t take it personally” is an easy phrase that is hard to absorb. Proficient writing (and thick skin) is achieved only through consistent critical crafting.

Battle Plan

1. Start close to home, by showing your work to someone you trust.
2. Build up your confidence. Have your work critiqued by a literary professional.
3. Continue your quest by honing your work to a razor-sharp edge, then submitting.

When parents have children, their goal is not to keep them in diapers at home their whole lives. God forbid! Kids gain their independence gradually, with small victories (and failures) along the way. Think of your stories as grown children. Do you want them parked on your family room sofa, playing video games the rest of their lives, or facing the world with fully equipped prose? Plaster on a smile, proud parent, and kiss them goodbye.

Quite by accident, I had the radio on this morning when author Erin Morgenstern came on The Diane Rehm Show on NPR. Erin’s debut novel, The Night Circus, is a sensation that’s drawing comparisons to Harry Potter, but for adults. Here’s what they had to say about it on the radio show’s website:

It’s the story of a life-or-death competition between two young magicians late in the 19th century. The contest takes place at Le Cirque des Reves – The Circus of Dreams. There’s also a dreamlike aspect to how the book itself came about. Erin Morgenstern says she started with a circus and it turned into a story about choices and love, and finding the shades of grey between the black-and-white.

I was only half-listening to the radio from the other room until I heard Morgenstern — who speaks in a girlish, eager voice that fits her fantastical, quirky personality — say that her book owed its genesis to NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month.

Many KWA members have participated in this annual writing challenge, which lays down the gauntlet to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Morgenstern says she launched a NaNoWriMo project in 2005 that wasn’t going anywhere. She decided she needed to give her characters something to do, so she sent them to the circus. The rest is a publishing success story that inspired me. I’m even still listening to her interview as I write this post. (The fact that we share the same name, and that the host keeps saying it, is lulling me into a fantasy that I am the successful novelist getting national media exposure.)

I won’t recap the whole interview but you can go back and listen to it yourself. And I recommend all aspiring writers do so. She started just like you and me: with an idea, the discipline to write it down and keep at it, and no real publishing connections. She sent loads of queries to loads of agents, and actually had the good fortune to get a lot of requests for the full manuscript. And then, she got back a lot of rejections. But they came with feedback, and she took their advice about what didn’t work. She rewrote and rewrote until her novel landed in front an agent who also said it wasn’t ready–but he offered her a contract, and helped guide her the rest of the way. Now she’s in talks with Hollywood about bringing her book to the screen (which I have to admit I would love to happen to me).

Two lessons here: Persevere, no matter how many times you are rejected or ignored. Rewrite, no matter how perfect you think your story is. Let’s face it, if we want to get published, we have to submit a product that will sell. But in the case of books, our customers are readers, and so are we. And we want to read something good! So listen to your critics, take what you like, and leave the rest.

We’re about 5 weeks from NaNoWriMo 2011. Consider taking a crack at it. Maybe this is the year you unearth a circus of your own.

Is your work-in-progress a screenplay? Take advantage of the Bluecat Screenwriting Workshop coming to Wichita in October, sponsored by the Tallgrass Film Festival.

First Ten Pages Workshop
Up to seven writers are accepted to submit the first 10 pages of their screenplays to the group before the workshop day. At the workshop, the pages are read out loud, providing each writer the valuable experience of hearing their script, followed by a discussion of the pages by the workshop. If you don’t have a completed screenplay but still want to participate, you can audit the workshop without submitting material.

When: Friday, Oct. 21, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Where: Rock Island Studios, 121 N. Mead St., Suite 104, Wichita
Full Registration: $95
Audit: $45
Info: www.bluecatscreenplay.com/screenwriting_help/workshops.php

Also check out the Full Script Workshop in Kansas City. Limited to seven writers, this workshop provides direct and in-depth feedback on each screenplay, with everyone encouraged to contribute his or her own thoughts and concerns. The Full Script Workshop is set for Oct. 2 at the Livestock Exchange Building, 1600 Genessee, in Kansas City, Mo. Visit www.bluecatscreenplay.com/screenwriting_help/workshops.php for details.

Award-winning screenwriter Gordy Hoffman founded the BlueCat Screenplay Competition in 1998 and has since presided over the evaluation and adjudication of over 10,000 screenplays.