Word Count

Writers Talk About Writing

You Can't Fix a Blank Page

Eileen Wilks is one busy author. In the past ten years, she's written twenty nine novels. Her world? Romance, the most popular genre in America. And not only here: Eileen's books have been translated into twelve languages. She recently emailed us about how the Visual Thesaurus helps her work.

"The Visual Thesaurus isn't just a fun way to avoid writing, or other productive work. (Though it is that, at times.) Yesterday I used it to come up with a title for my current book-in-progress. My editor emailed me that she'd be cover-conferencing the book next week, and did I have a title yet? Well, no. I had some ideas, all bad. I took a few key words and started plugging them into the Visual Thesaurus, following one link or another, backtracking, and eventually -- boing! I hit pay dirt. Thank you for a wonderful tool. I wouldn't have arrived at 'Blood Lines' without it."

You're most welcome, Eileen.

Eileen also gave us an idea: We wanted to find out how she does it -- what are her secrets for being so productive a writer? And what advice does she have for those of us struggling to write, whether it's our first book or first marketing brochure? So we called Eileen at home in Midland, Texas, to find out. We hit pay dirt, too:

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