Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > To Outline or Not to Outline: That is the Question There are two types of writers in this world: the kind who outline and the kind who don’t. OK, so that may be a slight exaggeration, but I’ve…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > When it comes to writing and submissions, there is such a thing as too soon. In fact, the number one mistake writers make in the area of submitting their work is moving…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > How do I go about writing a memoir? As an editor, I often get asked, “What’s the difference between an autobiography and a memoir?” In framing my answer, I sometimes reply, “All baseballs are round, but not all…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > An offshoot of mining for stories is mapping ideas. For me, it started as a way to think about and control how much money I make on my stories. Those of us who write for publication have all…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > If you are like me, writing can be a series of stops and starts. It is all a part of the process. I have a ton of ideas that may have been great but as I started writing,…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > One of the most crippling things a writer can do in the early stage of any book is worry about whether your story (or something like it) has been done before. First,…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The Method to My Madness—Sort Of I often get asked about my process. How do you write your novels? Where do you begin? How do you keep going? And what do you do once you’re finished? Great series…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > One of the questions writers tend to be asked a lot is “where do you get your ideas?” Of course, two other questions are “can you read something for me?” and “can…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > We’ve talked about voice, tone, and humor. We’ve also discussed viewpoint. But how do we make it all work seamlessly? And can you use the same tools in nonfiction as you do in your fiction writing? It is…
Good nonfiction writing samples have things in common with fiction ones, but they also have specific requirements, so let’s check out the difference.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > It’s coming! Are you ready? You’re probably asking, “What’s coming?” Why, National Novel Writing Month, of course. It rolls around every November, that magical month when writers all across this great land of ours shut out every other…
Zeroing in on the viewpoint and finding the right way into the story is difficult. Check out these tips to consider when choosing the POV of your story.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Cours Catalog > Out of all the style tools we describe in this series on tone and voice, interjecting humor is probably the most difficult to pull off well. One reason is that we all see “funny” with different lenses. What…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Some writers write only one sort of book: picture books, mysteries, science fiction, humor, racy romance, etc. But many writers jump around in their careers and tackle whatever project bubbles up in…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > We’ve talked about “voice” now it is time to meet its twin sister, “tone.” If you are writing for publication, or for a specific publication, no matter what the genre, and you strike a tone that is too…
A writer’s voice is his or her fingerprint on a piece of work. It’s like DNA when it’s authentic. How do you define and develop your writer’s voice? Read on!
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Talking about how to end a book or story is a bit harder than talking about how to begin one. The first paragraph of a book doesn’t really count as a spoiler…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > It’s like they created a day just for folks like me, people who are (admittedly or not) obsessed with punctuation… proper punctuation and not-so-proper punctuation. As a professional proofreader and editor, Punctuation Day is especially dear to my…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Momentum is a delicate thing in writing. Sometimes you start out revving along in a novel, falling in love with your main character, fascinated by the situation you’re creating and cranking out…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Writing can be a lonely art form. Unlike performance artists, you don’t have audience reaction to rev you up. And sometimes family and friends aren’t incredibly supportive, especially during the early years…
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