Skip to content

Writing from the Peak Archive

A fond farewell!

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers, A new year is once again here, and I hope that all of you are looking forward to writing success in 2023. What […]

Be a Gifting Writer

The Gifting Writer

By: Deborah Brewer We sometimes hear of the gifted writer, but what might it mean to be a gifting one? The practice of writing is […]

Creating a Novella. It's a Wrap!

Crafting a Novella, Part 10

 Wrapping It All Up Into a Nice, Neat Package By: Donna Schlachter What better time of the year to “wrap up” a series than in […]

Mood and Brussels Sprouts

A Whole Mood

By: Deborah Brewer A short video plays on social media: A pigtailed girl watches with wide-eyed panic as the ice cream from her cone topples […]

A cornucopia of Inspiration

A Cornucopia of Inspiration

By: Deborah Brewer – As a writer stares at a blank page or a mangled plot, it may feel like there is a dearth of […]

Be a NaNoWriMo Rebel

Why I’m a NaNoWriMo Rebel

By: Kari Redmond – What is NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, will soon be upon us. For the entire month of November, writers […]

Have a Stine-tingling Halloween!

A Chat with R.L. Stine

By: Trista Herring Baughman – Back in May, I had the privilege of attending Shreve Memorial Library’s Children’s Book Festival. This was only my second […]

How to Create Interesting Characters

Crafting a Novella

By: Donna Schlachter – Character Descriptions and Attributions – In a shorter work such as a novella, you can’t spend too much time describing what […]

From the President

  By: Kim Olgren, PPW President – Is it a sunset, or a sunrise? For some, it’s both as they move out of one chapter […]

Character arc goes beyond story structure.

Character Arcs

By: Donna Schlachter – This month we’ll take a look at how to create a Character Arc for the main characters in your story, usually […]

I met some real-life superheros at PPWC2022

My Fantastic Journey

Editor’s Note: Jen Wolf was one of several recipients who received scholarships to attend the Pikes Peak Writer’s 2022 conference. She shares many of the […]

Be a walking advertisement for your writer friends!

Helping Author Friends

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. […]

How many characters do we need?

Building Believable Characters, Part 4

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. […]

Is TikTok for Authors?

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? […]

The Up & Down Sides of Fragments

Fragmentary Thoughts

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 […]

Find Your Balance

Balance Your Marketing and Your Writing

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 […]

Don't give your Metaphors an Identity Crises

Metaphorical Thrills

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 […]

Craft Believable Villains

Building Believable Characters, Part 3

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 […]

Dabble in poetry to improve your writing.

Waxing Poetic

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 […]

Build Strong Secondary Characters

Building Believable Characters Part 2:

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 […]

Subplots, Characters, and Themes. Reader Loyalty

Building Reader Loyalty

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 […]