Writing Life Advice from Writers Who Kill by Judy L. Murray

If you’re a writer or a reader fascinated with the writing process https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com is a wealth of information and inspiration. We invite you to discover the world of the accomplished Writers Who Kill.

Each blog post can improve your own writing skills or introduce you to the writing world from a different perspective with years of ideas, writing struggles, and new resources. All the articles are listed within months of the year. Scroll along and discover a new view of the writing and reading world!

On Writing Inspiration:
Tips to Help Writers Stay Motivated by Heather Weidner September 11, 2026
Thoughts on Writing by Nancy L. Eady August 31, 2026
Where Do We Get Our Ideas? It’s Complicated by Maureen Milliken August 29, 2026
My Writing Journey: From Cerebral Reader to Thriller Writer by Lisa Malice Nov 9, 2024
Travel with Benefits by Paula Gail Benson August 20, 2024
An Interview with a Writer Rosalie Spielman by Grace Topping November 13, 2024

On Writing Skills and Career Building:
Five Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Your Writing Career by Connie Berry August 27, 2026
There’s More to Writing Than Just Writing by Annette Dashofy August 23, 2026
Surviving the Editing Process by Judy L. Murray September 21, 2024
500 Words a Day by Martha Reed June 25, 2024
Website Rehab by Sarah E. Burr September 15, 2024
Insert Title Here by Mary Dutta November 2, 2024
How Do I Kill Thee? Let me count the ways by Teresa Inge June 3, 2024
Character Lessons by Lori Roberts Herbst October 4, 2024
Three Recommendations to Improve Your Stories by James M. Jackson October 1, 2024
Writing More Than One Series at a Time by Marilyn Levinson June 20, 2024
Getting Out of Your Safe Space by Susan Van Kirk February 5, 2026
Slowing Down Has Its Benefits by Debra H. Goldstein July 20, 2026
Don’t Create Your Own Roadblocks by Shari Randall June 10, 2024
Let’s Talk by K.M. Rockwood August 11, 2026

On Reading Enjoyment:
Prime Reading Cozy Months Ahead by Korina Moss September 13, 2026
A Bit of Fun About Reading and Writing Books by Molly MacRae August 2, 2026
What We’re Reading by Kait Carson July 30, 2026
Julia Spencer-Fleming’s At Midnight Comes the Cry (Review) by Margaret S. Hamilton October 9, 2025

As you enjoy these articles feel free to add your comments. We writers love to hear from you.

All the best, Judy L. Murray
Author, The Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series
https//:JUDYLMURRAYMYSTERIES.com
PenCraft First Place Awards
IPPY Gold and Silver Medalist
Silver Falchion Int'l Award
Agatha Award Nominee

Rocking the Baby by Judy L. Murray

I’ve been rocking this baby for far too long. The baby, my fifth book in my Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series, is making me crazy.

She is impossible to please. A stuffed rabbit, a music box, a bottle. Never right. I am a mass of indecision. As a result, far too few words are on paper. I’ve tossed out ideas, one after another, and I’m never happy with any of them. The baby has colic and I’m stuck walking the floors.

I suppose I put myself in this position. Or shall I say I put my protagonist, Helen Morrisey, in this position. With the idea of sending Helen out beyond her Chesapeake village at the end of Villain in the Vineyard, I’m now frozen in fear that my readers will miss all my secondary characters they enjoy. I can hear my fans now. “Where is Tammi? Where are Lizzi and Shawn? Where are our favorite shops?” I’m afraid I’ll disappoint them. As a result, I’m getting nowhere and my deadline is creeping closer and closer like the Chesapeake shoreline at high tide. No wonder I’m not sleeping.

The past year has caused so many personal disruptions. We’ve all experienced them. I need to return to a creative routine. Yet, I want to have time for family. I’ve put together a few bits of advice to replace my misgivings and procrastination with decisions and words. Hopefully, they will help you if you hit the same wall.

Tony Robbins, Harvard ranked motivational coach, author Awaken the Giant Within
I attended his three one-hour zoom sessions last week. Tony had 62,000 people attending from around the world. Participation never dropped from the first minute to the last. “Beliefs create and beliefs destroy. Taking action makes fear go away.”

Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author, The Alice Network, The Rose Code “Give yourself permission to be bad. Silence that little voice in your head, the one that says… this is terrible, what am I doing, I can’t let anyone see this and just finish. Your first draft will be terrible, and that’s fine. Everyone’s first drafts are, mine included, and that’s fine! Just finish that first draft and fix it later.”

Lisa Scottoline, New York Times Bestselling Author, Edgar award-winner, author of 36 novels “How do you begin writing a new book? I pray, and then I start. Horrible first drafts are the secret to great writing.

Barbara Kingsolver, Pulitzer Prize winner “I write a lot of material that I know I’ll throw away. It’s just part of the process.”

E.L. Doctorow, three time winner National Book Critics Circle Award ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights. You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.”

Stephen Pressfield, author of the international bestseller The War of Art, ranked #3 Amazon in Creativity since 2012, Gates of Fire, The Legend of Bagger Vance “Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

I’m tossing this baby into your hands. If you have ideas on how to blend a storyline between an original location with a new one, love to hear them. If you think Helen needs to stay in her original world, let me know. If you have suggestions about how you got back into a writing routine after disruptions, I’d love to hear them too.

All the best to my writing comrades,

Judy L. Murray
Author, The Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series
PenCraft First Place Awards
IPPY Gold and Silver Medalist
Silver Falchion Int'l Award
Agatha Award Nominee

Seven Mistakes Every Author Makes by Judy L. Murray

Whether you are working on your first novel or your tenth, you cannot help but wonder what elements strengthen your storyline, attract a publisher, and grow your readership. If I’m not writing or reading, I often tap into different courses, YouTubes, newsletters, and blogs like our fabulous Writers Who Kill to help me improve.

Writing coach and professional editor Patrick Walsh offers YouTube posts with succinct advice that even the most experienced could use. He reminds us that good intentions don’t make good books. Good writing decisions do.

What are those good decisions? Patrick names seven mistakes often invisible to writers until someone else points them out. Let’s review. 1) Explanation Addiction: The propensity to explain something the reader already knows. “She slammed the door behind her. She was angry.” Explanation addiction is apparent every time we explain something the reader already knows. Each time you describe an emotion, stop, and ask yourself if you have already demonstrated it.

2) Overly Elaborate Dialogue: Patrick reminds us that real life dialogue is messy. When we talk, we hesitate, we stumble. If your dialogue is too neat, too smooth, too proper, it probably needs revision. Messy dialogue is far more interesting, more believable.

3) Point of View Slips: It takes a lot of practice to avoid POV slips. My first agent was an expert at correcting me until the concept jelled. His head then her head then his head. Stay within character.

4) Stakes do not Land: Patrick reminds us that often a book’s failure is because the protagonist(s) stakes are not high enough. What is the human cost? In my latest, Villain in the Vineyard, Helen Morrisey is harassed by a hoodlum who is graffitiing her clients’ homes. It is frustrating and even embarrassing. Or are these escalating attacks a targeted attempt to devastate her family, ruin her reputation, and drive her out of town. Keep readers turning your pages by elevating the stakes within every scene.

5) Pacing at the same Speed: When you write and revise ask yourself if every sentence is the same length. Every writer has their own style of writing. But fragmented sentences can help you vary the pace.

6) Starting Late: Is your story starting too late? The start of a story is a moment that changes everything. The start is not when your character begins their day. A detective’s story does not begin while he’s shaving. Not when he pours himself a cup of coffee. His story starts the moment he arrives at a crime scene.

7) Overwriting: This reminds me of Explanation Addiction. It’s human to feel compelled to elaborate, like the person in a conversation who repeats their story a second time. We can be so enamored with our perfect, beautiful phrases, we can forget the storyline. Patrick advises us to let your readers fill in the gaps. Their imagination is stronger than your elaborate descriptions which might bog down the pace and the dialogue. Don’t let overwriting for your personal pleasure dilute the stakes.

I’ll be reviewing Patrick’s checkpoints in 2026 as I work on my next book. I am curious. Which of these mistakes do you tend to make as you work?

You can find more of Patrick Harris’ advice at https://www.youtube.com/@publishingpushofficial

Find out more about me at Https://www.judylmurraymysteries.com

Do You Believe in Serendipity? - By Judy L. Murray

…In good karma? Or is it just coincidence? Jane Marple considers coincidence suspect, often deliberate. Yet I’ve decided as writers we experience ‘accidental’ moments quite often.

Last week my husband and I took a quick two-night trip. We were hungry for a bit of adventure before a big surgery. I picked a large historic B&B in Connecticut. It turned out to be the perfect choice. Charming, immaculate, and with delightful touches. But within hours he was under the weather. I was left to myself while he slept through the two days.

Restless and alone, I tucked into a tiny side room on the B&B’s first floor when a small dark-haired woman looked in. “I’m sorry, I was curious about this spot. I didn’t mean to intrude.” She smiled. I smiled back. “Of course not,” I replied. “My husband is sleeping. I’m returning a few calls.” The woman lifted two wine glasses in her hand. “My friends and I are in the fireplace room. Do you want to join us?” I began to protest, then stopped. “That’s so nice of you. I think I will.”

Which leads me to the subject of ‘community’ and how karma can pull us together at just the right time. The definition is ‘a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society’.

In mysteries, authors tend to place their protagonist within their own imagined community. It might be Port Anne, a small Maryland town on the Chesapeake in my series. Perhaps a community is like the famous Jane Marple’s St. Mary Mead or Jessica Fletcher’s Cabot Cove. It’s not just geography. Community incorporates characters’ work, personal hobbies, the styles and ages of their houses, even the weather. It becomes a shared commonality that binds residents together or perhaps drives them apart.

The term community is an important means for building reader attachment. Good writers inspire their readers to feel emotionally connected to their characters. Certainly in a series, fans anticipate the next book because of their evolving affection for a circle of characters. We laugh at the silly ones, root for those fighting crime, and cheer at the conclusion.

Writing can feel lonely. Yet we also know our characters become our special community of friends while we create their story. And the real people we meet when we’re out and about can provide us encouragement. Readers send me photos of my books on coffee tables, book shelves, beach chairs, and tote bags. They drive an hour and a half from home to purchase their signed copy at a signing. Their efforts to reach out touches my heart. It leaves me grateful. They become a vast community that keeps me writing.

Do you have an incident where karma or coincidence evolved into building your readership community? I wonder if our readers know how important they are to us or influence our stories.

Judy

Author, The Chesapeake Bay Mysteries Series

Gathering around a Campfire of Writers

The difference between aloneness and loneliness

From Brownie to Senior First Class, my years as a Girl Scout enriched my life and helped me grow in so many ways. I loved our sense of camaraderie as we sat around a campfire sharing spooky stories. Laughing with new friends, learning new skills, teaching others mine, Girl Scouts expanded my world.

As ‘grown-ups’ working at home on our latest manuscripts, we need to be alone. We ponder, we stare out a window, we write a scene, then sneak off to toss another load of laundry into the dryer. Writing encourages us to hide away, to be alone.

When I Googled the word ‘aloneness’, the word ‘loneliness’ popped up next to it. Aloneness is defined as a good thing. It means you choose to be alone and enjoy it. Often we feel happy and panicked about our writing at the same time.

In my journey to getting my first book in the Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series written, an agent obtained, a publisher’s contract signed, loneliness crept in. I was cautious about telling corporate coworkers my aspirations. It was easy to fall into the loneliness trap. Loneliness is rarely a good feeling. Loneliness is the feeling most of us have when we want to connect with someone and no one is around to connect with. I always enjoy meeting people and I know interactions in different settings helps my writing. Opportunities to observe new settings and types of people adds depth and interest to my books. After all, mysteries are about internal and external thoughts, differences, and conflicts.

About five years ago, I joined my local Chesapeake ‘Chessie’ Chapter of Sisters in Crime. A year later, I joined the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Oh, how I wish I’d met these organizations sooner!

Our Chessie Chapter holds a Zoom meeting an hour each day. Faces change from one day to another because of other commitments. It’s flexible and helps us get to know other authors, discuss projects, webinars, successes and failures.

Writing groups remind me of the smell of a campfire, the burned tongue from smores, the laughter from silly jokes. They remind me to recognize the difference between aloneness and loneliness.

Do you have your own campfire blazing? I’d love to hear how it helps you write. 

Judy L Murray is the award-winning author of the Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series. Find her at www.judylmurraymysteries.com