on Live Write Thrive:

Here are some thoughts discussed in my book Writing the Heart of Your Story—important things for novelists to think about when deciding to commit the time and effort toward crafting a novel. May this book be just the guide you need—showing you how to get to the heart of your story so you can touch readers’ hearts.

What would you say was the difference between a good book and a great one? Between a forgettable novel and a classic that lingers long in your memory, maybe even for years? Between a book with a title and plot you’ve forgotten mere days after you read it and one with lines that haunt you for years, and characters that seem so real you find yourself thinking about them over a lifetime and wondering what they would say or do in a given situation?

Some good books provide an entertaining read, much like a good meal will satisfy. But then there are those other books. You know the ones I mean. Those are the ones you hope you’ll find as you look for something significant to read, the ones you earnestly search for as if seeking a precious gem, with the desperate hopefulness of a miner panning for gold, day in and out, waiting for the big strike. A book with that kind of magic—that resonates with our heart and somehow fulfils a need in our soul—that is the mother lode.

Books like that are more than just a good, or even great, read. They speak to us on some integral, deep level and nourish us. They speak to our heart. If your greatest desire as a novelist is to reach and affect a reader’s heart in a significant way, to “strike home” with some theme, message, or emotional resonance, you have to tap into your own heart and explore why you are writing the story you’ve chosen to tell.