by Meg Dowell
Do you find starting a project is more of a struggle than finishing one? Do you struggle to meet deadlines because you always start much later than you planned? I’ve tried to overcome this barrier in my writing for years. And while some procrastination can be a good thing, there may be a very simple way to increase your productivity without totally stressing you out.
Continue reading Just Set a Start Date
by Jordan Jolley
Each author has different tactics of writing. Some authors will work from sunup to sundown while others may have part-time jobs. Some may have a deep love for historical fiction while another has a deep love for romance. Of course, one specific set of writing methods isn’t the same among authors. However, there are some tips and habits that will be very useful to anyone who writes. They are important tips.
by Andrea Lundgren
I was thinking about this the other day while on hold. I was waiting for a break in the music that signaled that someone was going to rescue me from the unending monotony, so when the music would change from stringed instruments music to a pause, I’d get excited…only to have the music start another movement.
by Michael Mohr
I want to talk briefly about novel structure because, as a novel editor, I see all kinds of basic issues from the majority of the aspiring writer-clients I work with. There is a wealth of info out there on the web but I wanted to give you a little taste of what makes a solid novel. Because, especially if you write commercial fiction and hope to land an agent and get published, novel structure is incredibly important to pay attention to.
by Ryan Lanz
Has anyone ever told you that you have an architect or gardener style of plotting?
There are all sorts of names for styles of plotting. Another set is pantser/plotter, although those terms never seemed to feel right for me. Both styles have various pros and cons, neither being right or wrong. Each method also has certain strengths and weaknesses, which we’ll go over later in this post.
So which are you? Let’s dive in.
by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick
We writers all have our heroes. Depending on your genre, personal taste, and even reading experiences that go back as far as grade school, your writing hero might be Edgar Allen Poe or Tolkien, Hemingway or Jane Austen, Mark Twain or James Patterson.
But ask a humor writer to list his role models and you’ll almost certainly find Erma Bombeck.
Continue reading The 3 Steps to Writing Humor: Channeling Erma
by Doug Lewars
Book reviews are a fact of life. If it’s your book being reviewed, they’re nice if they’re positive and decidedly unpleasant if they’re negative. Every book is going to have a few negative reviews. That’s a fact of life because people are different, have different interests, enjoy different things, and will relate to your work in different ways.
by Meg Dowell
Sometimes, writing less leads to deeper, more creative thinking.
Have you ever wondered how some writers manage to write thousands of words every day — while you can barely squeeze out 500 words after an hour of trying (and failing) to focus? How do so many successful writers publish so much — even though one success could carry their careers for years?
These are the habits of writers who cannot stop, who refuse to stop, who somehow do this writing thing and don’t suffer creative burnout in the process.
by Michael Mohr
One of the toughest things to do in fiction or creative nonfiction writing, in my professional opinion, is to create strong, believable tension. Without tension—between the protagonist and a villain, the protagonist and him/herself, the protagonist and the environment, etc—you really don’t have much of a story. And it’s unlikely readers will want to follow you far through the jungle of your narrative.
