By: Trista Herring Baughman Occasionally, I witness a rallying call to support local businesses. It’s a nice gesture, one I’d like to see more often. I prefer to shop local when I can: farmers’ markets, locally-owned specialty stores, mom-and-pop restaurants, etc. I don’t think authors generally come to mind when […]
By: Georgiana Hall (G.G. Hall) Let’s face it. After 2 years of Covid-related lockdowns, sadness, restrictions, and whatever else, we all need a good laugh. So, as I was working on that fifth revision of the tenth book in my series about dwarf two-headed red aliens who landed in Nashville […]
Determining the Perfect Number of Characters By: Donna Schlachter Now that you have your cast of characters, you’ll want to be sure they’re all necessary. And that they won’t overwhelm the reader. Or bog down the plot lines. There are several other reasons not to have too many characters. Too […]
By: Jenny Kate Well, TikTok absolutely exploded in 2021. And it will continue that trajectory into 2022. Does that mean you should be on it? If you’ve followed me long enough, you’ll know my answer to that would be “it depends.” Do you have your books written yet? If not, […]
By: Deborah Brewer There is quite a bit of debate about the use of sentence fragments, or incomplete sentences, in prose fiction to create a voice that is frank, casual, and immediate. These sentence fragments are missing a subject (noun) or a predicate (verb). Some say fragments should never be […]
By Jenny Kate Here’s the deal. There are 250,000 authors signed up as Draft2Digital authors. Writers upload roughly 50,000 books a month to Amazon. If you want to make a living selling books, you must market your work. There’s no way around it. Ten years ago, I would have told […]
By: Deborah Brewer What’s not to love about metaphor? Our language would be impoverished without its contribution to our poems, jokes, stories, and rhetoric. Metaphors enlighten us about one thing by relating it to something else. This connection flashes through our brains like an epiphany, one of the best feelings […]
Craft a Convincing Villain By: Donna Schlachter So far we’ve talked about the importance of building believable characters and why that’s so critical to the foundation for any story. Last month, strong secondary characters were discussed, and we learned that not only do these secondary characters support—or oppose—our main characters, […]
By: Deborah Brewer What writer doesn’t want to improve their prose? Let me recommend dabbling in poetry to do just that. Reading, studying, and practicing verse have improved my fiction writing experience in several ways, improving my mood, my vocabulary, and my emotional expression. You might try it too. Use […]
By: Margena Holmes No matter what stage of writing you’re at, going to a writers’ conference can be fun and informative. I have a few conferences under my belt now, and no matter where it’s held, there is always something new presented to the attendees. The topics presented are as […]
Strong Secondary Characters Last month we looked at why it’s important to create believable characters for our stories. You can check that out here if you missed it. Hopefully, you’ve had the opportunity to practice some of the pointers I mentioned in that article. This month we’ll look at Strong […]
By: Kim Krisco Like most writers, I have honed my writing skills by reading countless books, attending workshops, and joining writer’s groups – all with one goal: to get published. Then it happened, a London publisher accepted one of my novels. It wasn’t long after I popped a celebratory champagne […]
Disconnecting to Stay Motivated & Ward off Procrastination By: Jenny Kate Did you know, Americans spend an average of 6.5 hours a day on the internet. Pew Research found that most of us spend almost a full day on the internet a week. That’s nuts! Does the internet help you […]
By: Kim Olgren Whether you’re a pantser or a plotter, you need to know about scene lists. This is a tool that can change your life as a writer. Pantsers don’t run away. I promise I’m not trying to convert you I’m trying to help you. Don’t be afraid of […]
By: Donna Schlachter As writers, we understand the importance of plot—the action of the story. Without it, nothing happens. With a bad plot, we’ll bore our readers, or confuse them, and they’ll do the unthinkable—toss our book aside and never buy another. Along with plots go subplots, those extras to […]
By Jenny Kate As we embark on a new year, tons of folks are thinking about how to develop new habits. Go to the gym. Eat better. Write more. Habits and goals are important. They give us purpose. And purpose gives us longevity. I’ve been thinking a lot about Blue […]
By: Catherine Dilts Pantsers and Plotters often view each other with disdain. In the Plotter’s view, Pantsers are disorganized, chasing after the spark of an idea at the sacrifice of crafting a coherent story. Pantsers see the Plotter’s methods as excessively neat and controlling, at the sacrifice of releasing genuine […]
By: G.G. Hall About a dozen years ago, I embarked on a journey to write a children’s tale about a rabbit who was a pet, living in a home, and having some big adventures. The novel was to be told from a rabbit’s point of view, including the use of […]
By: Donna Schlachter I used to think writing shorter would make the process easier. I started out penning greeting cards, devotionals, poetry, and take-home articles. Magazine articles. Children’s books. You name it. If it was less than two thousand words, I’ve probably done it. Not surprisingly, I learned that writing […]
Set Goals Instead! By: Trista Herring Baughman As 2021 comes to a close and 2022 approaches, for many, it’s once again time for making New Year’s Resolutions: get fit, quit bad habits, get organized, spend less time on social media, and more time with loved ones, etc. These are noble […]
