National Novel Writing Month — Let Your Novel Simmer and Marinate with Scrivener
Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Now that we’re closing in on the final stretch of November, you may [Read More]
Month: November 2018
30 Things I’ve Learned About the Writing Life
On Thanksgiving, I celebrated 30 years since the sale of my first book. It’s a crazy milestone and made me consider this writing and publishing [Read More]
Flog a Pro: would you pay to turn the first page of this bestseller?
Trained by reading hundreds of submissions, editors and agents often make their read/not-read decision on the first page. In a customarily formatted book manuscript with [Read More]
8 Wonderful New Literary Journals
The following is a list of 8 new literary journals. All of these journals have been around for less than six months. In my experience, [Read More]
Maximizing Writing Productivity While Working Full-Time
Many writers dream of days they can devote entirely to their craft. But the reality is that working a day job in a field often [Read More]
How do you Describe a Place? 6 Setting Tips
We feel connected to place in a story when we see it through characters’ senses. Bring senses such as sight, hearing, touch, smell and even [Read More]
It’s That Time Again
As the end of the year looms large, we writers should be thinking about strategic planning. I know—it sounds like work. Boring work. But, honestly, [Read More]
Theme Me Up: How to Develop Your Novel’s Theme
Theme is an often overlooked tool in a writer’s toolbox. Here’s another look at finding the greater meaning in your story. Several years ago [Read More]
Stupid Writing Rules: Why One Size Fits All Advice Doesn’t Work
Ruth Harris and I have both written about how there are no rigid rules for writing good fiction, only guidelines. Even guidelines don’t apply to [Read More]
How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book: Writing about People You Know: Do You Need to Get Permission?
A reader from Connecticut is finishing up her new novel this month, getting ready to send it out to agents. She sent me a good [Read More]
Keeping Track of Everything in Scrivener with Metadata
One of the great things about Scrivener is that it allows you to divide up your work into scene – or chapter-sized “chunks” (usually documents). [Read More]
Character Arc Template: Building a Character Arc in 5 Steps
Writing character profiles and brainstorming main characters’ arcs helps establish story direction. A good character arc template includes facts about your characters’ goals, high points [Read More]
The 3 Types of Compounds
This post discusses the three types of compounds in English: compound nouns, compound modifiers, and compound verbs. Compound Nouns Compound nouns come in three forms: [Read More]
Cliffhangers: How to Write a Story Your Readers Can’t Put Down
It’s no secret that the time-tested method of using cliffhangers at the end of your chapters or scenes is a sure-fire way to make that [Read More]
How to Create Tension in a Story: 8 Simple Steps
Understanding how to create tension in a story is key to writing a gripping, ‘I’ll just read one more page before bed’ read. Here are [Read More]
Sailing into the End of the Year
My father had his own set of proverbs that he dispensed like wisdom from the mountaintop. Even though it’s been decades since I lived in [Read More]
Fiction University: Simple Steps to an Author Auto-Responder
One of the topics I’d heard other independent authors talk about a lot was auto-responders, but for years, I put off actually setting up one [Read More]
41 Words That Are Better Than Good
The soul of writing is specificity, yet all too often, we lean on general-purpose words instead of choosing the most precise ones. Most of our [Read More]
The 9-Minute Novelist: How to Write a Novel in Just Minutes a Day
Writing a novel is a complicated equation involving a lot of variables and moving parts—not the least of which are the authors themselves. In fact, [Read More]
7 Choices That Affect A Writer’s Style
Style, in its broadest sense, is a specific way in which we create, perform, or do something. Style in literature is the way an author [Read More]
20 Tips to Improve your Writing Productivity
So you’d like your latest writing project to get moving faster. Great writers have felt the same. Don’t worry, it’s fixable. When the words stop, [Read More]