Fiction How-to

How to Cut Your Word Count

by Sabine Berlin The dreaded word cut! We’ve all been there and are with you in spirit! For starters, if you need to know the standard, accepted word counts of your genre, here’s a great article on the topic (pretty critical to getting picked up in traditional...

Conscious Language: Writing with Respect and Compassion

Guest post by Crystal Shelley Writers have many factors to keep in mind when trying to decide what words to put down on paper or type on a keyboard, such as their audience, message, and intent. Another important element to consider is how their language can affect...

Give a Little, Take a Little

Delivering—and Receiving—Negative Feedback in a Constructive Way by Sabine Berlin with Sandi Larsen Constructive feedback (often seen in the writer’s head as negative feedback) is a hard pill to swallow. Nobody wants to be told the story they’ve devoted hours, months,...
Writing a Nonlinear Timeline

Writing a Nonlinear Timeline

by Emilee Newman Bowles with Angela Eschler, Adrianne Montoya, and Lindsay Flanagan Have you ever thought about time travel? What if we said it’s possible—well, sort of. We don’t have a DeLorean, and we’re not sure falling through Stonehenge can take you back in time,...

read more
Choosing Your Fiction Title

Choosing Your Fiction Title

by Marla Buttars Coming up with a title can make even veteran authors groan in agony. Don’t believe us? Check out some of these original titles we found in an article from The Huffington Post: All’s Well That Ends Well  sends a much different message than War and...

read more
I Wrote 25K Words in Less Than Three Days

I Wrote 25K Words in Less Than Three Days

And You Can Do It Too! by Rachelle J. Christensen I just returned from a fabulous writing retreat where I killed my writing goals, and I can’t wait to tell you about the simple methods I used to write 25,000 words, or roughly 120 double-spaced pages, in two and a half...

read more
I Wrote 25K Words in Less Than Three Days

I Wrote 25K Words in Less Than Three Days

And You Can Do It Too! by Rachelle J. Christensen I just returned from a fabulous writing retreat where I killed my writing goals, and I can’t wait to tell you about the simple methods I used to write 25,000 words, or roughly 120 double-spaced pages, in two and a half...

read more
Writing Software—Which is Best?

Writing Software—Which is Best?

by Annette Lyon Q. What is the best software to write with? A. USA-Today best-selling author says Scrivener for writing and Microsoft Word for editing.   Writing Time-Saver and Organization Heaven Annette Lyon: I use Scrivener mostly for drafting and revision....

read more
How to Write Fight Scenes

How to Write Fight Scenes

By Emilee Newman Bowles Fight scenes are some of the hardest scenes to follow in a book, and so they are some of the hardest to write well. Remember that you’re not writing a screenplay, and readers will get bored with page after page of kicks and punches—or they’ll...

read more
Feeling overwhelmed or unsure about your book project?
Boost your confidence with our free author tools.
PHEW!
Boost your confidence with our free author tools.
Feeling overwhelmed or unsure about your book project?
PHEW!