Fiction How-to

How to Cut Your Word Count

by Lindsay Flanagan | | Blog, Editing, Fiction How-to, Nonfiction How-to | 0 Comments

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

by Lindsay Flanagan | | Blog, Editing, Fiction How-to, Nonfiction How-to | 0 Comments

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

by Lindsay Flanagan | | Blog, Fiction How-to, Nonfiction How-to, Writing Life (Finding Time, Writing Groups, Getting Organized, Etc.) | 2 Comments

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,...

Internal Dialogue—Getting It Right

by Lindsay Flanagan | Aug 1

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...

Top Three Short Story Mistakes

by Lindsay Flanagan | Jul 4

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...

How Logic Can Make or Break Your Story

by Lindsay Flanagan | Jun 13

by Sabine Berlin “I can’t believe you did that!” We’ve all been there. You’re reading a book (or watching a movie) and you’re completely immersed in a story, when suddenly your hero does something that makes no sense whatsoever. While there are some cases where you...

The Most Common Advice May Be the Worst

by Lindsay Flanagan | May 20

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...