Category: How To and Tips
Vulnerability in Your Writing and Why it Matters
by Marina DelVecchio After reading Unsexed: Memoirs of a Prostitute’s Daughter, a friend told me I was brave to write it, followed by, “Don’t you feel vulnerable, writing about your life?” Many conversations I have had with women in the past few years have brought up similar issues with truth-telling: how much of our truth […]
Writing God Bless The Child
The women in God Bless the Child have been tangled up in knots since I first created them nearly two decades ago. Bringing them back out into the light for a fresh look with older eyes and a wiser heart has led even their creator to marvel and wince anew at the raw ferocity that […]
Deborah L. King: On Writing
I was a fantastic liar as a child. For years I told people that four fingers on each hand were smashed and broken by a heavy window that I attempted to close when I was four years old. I told how I removed the screwdriver that held the window up. I described the pain and […]
Writing Stories with Larger Meanings and Goals
By Sharon J. Wishnow On August 29, 2021 Hurricane Ida, a massive 150 mph category 4 storm slammed into Grand isle, Louisiana. Twelve hundred miles north in my home in Northern Virginia, I wept. Stories that move us and remain with us are the ones where we feel an emotional connection to the characters and […]
Choosing Your People By Rhett DeVane
By Rhett DeVane Friendships became vital during the pandemic. Now, as we crawl from our hideouts to physically interact, those connections are just as crucial. Recently, as I thought about the underlying themes in my novel Ditch Weed, two stood out: the importance of both heart-family and intragenerational friendships. I discovered these common threads not […]
Reasons to Love Developmental Editing
By Martha Carlson Developmental editing of fiction is work that brings me joy. Writers come to me with questions and uncertainty, and I use my experience, education, and training to bring them clarity and to recharge their enthusiasm for revising their work. I love hearing clients respond to my editing by saying “I have a […]
Writing Together: The Evolution of My Writing Practice
By Christina Consolino For me, writing began as a solitary act. Much like when I read, I immersed myself in the world of story, reveling in the characters, setting, plot, and themes. My lone writing time gave me the opportunity to marinate in my work, and I believed my introverted self couldn’t possibly write with […]
From Mechanical Engineer to Romance Author: My Journey to Writing Sweet Contemporary Romantic Comedies
By Camilla Isley Ever since I was a child, books have been my sanctuary. I remember the thrill of flipping through pages, getting lost in fantastical worlds, and forming connections with characters who felt like friends. As a teen, I was swept up in the Harry Potter craze, eagerly anticipating each new release. Those moments […]
How I Accidentally-on-Purpose Ended Up a Co-author, and You Can, Too!
By Tiffani Angus As writers, we tend to be solo workers, so to many of us, the idea of writing with someone else…? Bite your tongue! Being a co-author can be scary and mean losing things: a say in your story, power over what’s written, or even yourself under a pile of words you didn’t […]
FOUR TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL CO-WRITING
By Tracy Badua Writing can be such a solitary pursuit: just you and a writing instrument, for hours on end. But it doesn’t have to be. For our upcoming middle grade book, Alechia Dow and I worked together in outlining, drafting, revising, and stress-baking over The Cookie Crumbles, a murder mystery centered on a kids […]
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