Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > When you think about all of the writing elements that need to come together to make a successful magazine story or article, it might seem as if the title is the least of your worries. After all, it’s…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > It was early spring, and I was thinking about articles for January. As freelancers know, most publications plan issues months ahead, so we need to submit our queries and articles with that in mind. I decided to write…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Nonfiction ideas truly are everywhere, and writers who focus on nonfiction need never say, “There’s nothing to write about.” We can delve into biography, history, science, sports, astronomy, autobiography, memoir, geography, technology, travel, pop culture, religion, health and…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > When people think of writing, they might picture themselves with their hands eagerly curled over the keyboard waiting for inspiration to strike. Then, once the frenzy of inspiration has passed, they hit the save button, and wonder what…
If readers believe in your human sci-fi characters, they’ll believe every other aspect of your story, no matter how weird or alien or out of this world. Readers will follow you anywhere, even to the ends of the universe.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Conventional Structures for Unconventional stories What is it that you love about science fiction? The out-of-this-world settings? The nifty gadgets? The weird aliens? As unconventional as science fiction can get, it almost always follows a conventional structure. Take…
Your writer’s voice is a skill that can be developed. Here are six tips that will help you pump, prime & polish your writing voice. Let’s get to work!
Voice in writing can be elusive. How do you develop your writing voice while also writing characters with their own voices? Lori Mortensen is here to help.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In my previous post, I highlighted common roadblocks writers may experience when it comes to submitting their work or even thinking about submitting their work. Now that these have been explained and hopefully eliminated, you should be able…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Hello NaNoWriMo-ers! You are word writing warriors. The end is in sight. Don’t slow down now. It’s almost over. By the end of today, you should have 40,008 words done on your novel. That’s fewer than 10,000 words…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Hello NaNoWriMo-ers! You are on the way. You’ve past the halfway mark of the month of November and are heading down the home stretch. How’s that for scary? (Or exciting!) By the end of today, you should have…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > For NaNoWriMo participants, November 3rd is the day their novel hits 5,001 words. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s when thousands (millions?) of people all over the world pledge to write 50,000 words of their…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Examples for Building a Supernatural Mystery or Paranormal Mystery Saying a mystery is about something unknown takes on a new meaning when it comes to supernatural and paranormal mysteries. Supernatural means anything beyond our natural world, beyond our…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In last week’s post, I told you about Catherine Aird’s article “Planning and Plotting the Detective Story.” Here are the points that were lightbulbs for me, and why I think you should pay mind to them. Lightbulb #1…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In last week’s post, I gave you two clues. With only one accredited class in genre writing under my belt, and a dozen creative writing classes that came nowhere near 221b Baker Street, how did I write five…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Every story ever written contains some element of mystery. We’ll talk about that and a lot of other things over this four-week series. In a mystery novel—a whodunit, a police procedural, a cozy—the mystery is the story. Who…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > If you decide to write a holiday-themed romance, the first thing you need to do is decide if you want to self-publish it or if you want to go the traditional route. Traditional publishers (the big five: Penguin/Random…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The key element that makes a novel a romance is the ending. How to conclude your book so it’s satisfying to the genre readers who have set expectations? By ending with the happily ever after (HEA) or the…
When writing a romance novel, how do you should you handle sex scenes? Tips for writing open and closed-door sex scenes from Jamie K. Schmidt.
Avid romance novel readers have made the romance genre a billion-dollar industry, but romance has come a long way in the 21st century. Read our primer here!
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