Category: How To and Tips
I Resolve to Buckle Down…and Lighten Up
According to the History Channel, the ancient Babylonians were the first to make New Year’s resolutions around 4,000 years ago. The Romans did it too. Back then, it was more about appeasing the gods than self-improvement, but the basic premise is the same: atone for one’s faults and vow to do better. Lately, resolutions have […]
You Are Not Alone
Many people, I think, imagine writers alone in a room in front of a computer screen furiously typing their stories. While this is absolutely true for me, I also email all day with a few close author friends until we need a new thread because so many messages are flying back and forth. We talk […]
New Year’s Writing Resolutions: Part One
We asked some of our favorite authors to share their New Year’s Writing Resolutions with us! This is Part One! Lisa Barr, Award-winning author of THE UNBREAKABLES (HarperCollins, June 4, 2019). Write, Edit, Revise, SELF-CARE, repeat. Note: This year, 2019, I added SELF-CARE into the plot twist. As a Mom of three daughters, with a very […]
The Heart Behind My Words
I am still completely blown away that my first novel Her Greatest Mistake was taken on by my lovely agent, earned me a three book deal and has now sold over 50,000 copies. All this happened in less than a year. Is this real? Did this actually happen? I’d already launched myself into Who I […]
Why I wrote Companion Of The Ash
I am a writer of historical fiction — historical fiction from a woman’s perspective. Women, especially in the Classics, have long been underrepresented and shown to be weak, vulnerable, and often signified the darker side of humanity. Great Classical writers like Homer and Euripides showed women to be sorceresses and weaklings, more apt to swoon […]
Writing Lessons From My Dog
Sounds wacky, doesn’t it? I learned valuable writing tips…from my dog? Maybe I should rephrase that. Thanks to my dog, I have learned how to be a more disciplined writer. I’ve had dogs my entire life but it wasn’t until my husband and I brought home a little black fuzz ball—a Schipperke we called Zoey—that […]
A Protagonist We Can Root For: Likable, Relatable, Neither, Or Both?
The question of likability, especially for female protagonists, is a topic that has sparked heated debate. Male protagonists have, traditionally, had an easier time of it. There have been rascals and rogues as well as knights; for every Atticus Finch, there’s a Rhett Butler. Yet female protagonists have had a more difficult history. Eccentricity is […]
How Do You Get From 0 to 1? From Dreaming to Writing, Writers Tell Their Stories
After I graduated from college, I wanted to write a novel. I’d had this dream ever since I could remember. But first there was the small matter of supporting myself. I didn’t look for a full-time job; I wanted a job that would earn me enough money to pay for rent and food while still […]
On Becoming (Otherwise Known as Finding Courage)
It seems I have a problem. I worry too much about what other people think. It’s part of my nature to be empathetic to other people’s needs and alert to their expectations. My radar, like that of other writers, is finely tuned. My heart tells me to transform myself into shapes to suit others, even […]
From Long To Short: A Short Story Phobic’s Tale
Being honest, I found short stories difficult. Distilling a tale down to 1,000 or 2,000 words without making a good, meaty story seemed a terrifying task; no character development, no sub-plots, little if any world-building, no wide cast of characters, no complexity, I thought. As a newbie writer several years ago, I tried very hard […]
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