Every November, like clockwork, writers all around the world are pumped to crank out the required 50k words over the course of the month to win…
Illness is the enemy of productivity. Chronic conditions make setting and achieving goals feel nearly impossible on bad days. On good days, overdue wordcounts and dropped…
As a writer, I love flashbacks. They help strengthen the emotional connection between reader and protagonist. Flashbacks give us a peek into our point-of-view character’s backstory…
Many writers dread the middle of a novel. Beta readers describe middles in unfortunate terms like messy, boring, draggy, or saggy. While the beginning delivers the…
Story endings are a minefield for writers. They get people fired up, and not always in a good way. Diehard fans can get apoplectic about the…
I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. Much of my early adulthood was spent making long lists of ambitious goals I’d never achieve. As a result,…
A love interest can strengthen almost any storyline. Romantic relationships increase stakes and tension. This gives you another pacing tool outside your main plotline. They also…
There are plenty of personal writing tips floating around online, but that doesn’t mean I can’t throw my hat into the ring. It’s an old, brown…
To all the baby writers out there, I was you once. Here are five writing tips no one told me, all of which I learned the…
Last week, I talked about the value of constructive criticism with regard to our manuscripts. Whether we are gathering feedback from a hive mind of readers…