by Lindsay Flanagan To outline or not to outline…that is the (much-debated) question. As a writer you may feel like you’re on team outliner (or plotter) or on team “pantser.” Maybe you haven’t decided which side to join. Or maybe you’ve joined one or the other but...
by Heidi Brockbank As editors, we’ve noticed that one of the tools new and even intermediate writers most often mishandle is internal dialogue. While internal dialogue (also called internal monologue) is a powerful tool the writer can use to help a reader make an...
by Kristin Ammerman Bestselling authors such as Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeff Wheeler, Cassandra Clare, Neil Gaiman, and others write novels as well as short stories. There are several reasons why novelists also write short stories. Sense of...
by Angela Eschler Next to “Write what you know,” the most common piece of advice I hear at conferences is “Just write every day.” I always cringe a little when I hear that. Not because it’s not good advice. It is. But because it’s not the best advice for a...
by Angela Eschler Next to “Write what you know,” the most common piece of advice I hear at conferences is “Just write every day.” I always cringe a little when I hear that. Not because it’s not good advice. It is. But because it’s not the best advice for a...
by Emilee Newman Bowles Congratulations! You've written your true story or breathed life into characters who once existed only in your imagination—now what? Whether you’ve got fiction or nonfiction under your belt, now it’s time to take a look at your sentences, to...
by Emilee Newman Bowles Hello, “dear reader” As a young English Lit student, I laughed to myself when a story addressed the reader like this. It used to be common to tell the “dear reader” the moral of the story. These days it’s passé. Even if you know you should...
