Category: How To and Tips
Spending Seven Years Writing a Novel: A Study in Madness or Determination?
Spending Seven Years Writing a Novel: A Study in Madness or Determination? This June, my fifth novel, Claire Casey’s Had Enough, will be released. When I shared the cover in my monthly newsletter, many friends said, “Wow, you wrote it so fast!” I laughed because that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m sharing this […]
Good Thing I was a Lawyer First
By Lori B. Duff I don’t believe in fate. To believe in fate requires me to believe that free will is an illusion, that our choices only serve something predetermined. Actions have consequences. Now that I’m in my mid-fifties, I’ve had a lot of time to make a lot of choices and suffer (or celebrate) […]
THE ART OF SUSPENSE: CRAFTING UNPREDICTABLE TWISTS IN CRIME FICTION
By Laurie Buchanan, author of the Sean McPherson crime thriller novels The lifeblood of crime fiction is tension—the underlying current of unease, suspense, and anticipation that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. The elements that contribute to tension are: INTRIGUING CHARACTERS Complex characters with hidden motives and flaws make for compelling reading. The interplay […]
How I Use My Hauntings as My Creative Guide
By Taryn Hubbard Everyone has something unique they obsess over, that keeps them up at night, or ticks away in the back of their mind. I refer to mine as my hauntings. When I set out to write my debut novel, The Very Good Best Friend, I had been ruminating about many of the themes examined […]
The Regret That Changed Everything: Finding My Author Life After 30 Years
“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” These words are the No. 1 regret of the dying, as reported by Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who provided palliative care for patients in the last 12 years of their lives. In 2016, this […]
Knowing Your Audience: How to Write for #BookTok
By Kait Ballenger Character skits. Aesthetic videos. Shelf trophies and…masked men? #Booktok can be a confusing crowd for those unfamiliar with it. But in a publishing climate where influencers reign supreme and book sales are increasingly fueled by social media virality, what’s an author to do? The answer lies in knowing your audience. First, let […]
The End: More Than Just Two Words
By Linda Rosen “The End,” the two treasured words authors adore typing. But is it really the end? It might be several months since you began your manuscript or, if you’re like me, several years. You’ve workshopped the story in a critique group, chapter by chapter, had a writing partner sitting shotgun along the way, […]
Writing Unforgettable Characters
By Tammy L. Grace As a reader, I am always drawn to characters in books. I remember characters from books I read decades ago, like Scout and Atticus Finch, Anne Shirley, Jean Valjean, and Hercule Poirot. As a young reader, I dreamed of becoming a novelist, crafting characters as unforgettable as those I still admire. […]
Writing Multicultural Stories by Patsy C. Robertson
by Patsy C. Robertson When I embarked on my writing journey, I had a clear vision of the types of stories I wanted to write. I wanted modern stories that displayed current and historical connections between Native Americans, African Americans, Africans, and the African diaspora throughout the Caribbean, South America, Central America, and Mexico. For […]
Fictional hope is still hope: The power of uplifting stories
By Ginny Kubitz Moyer Over the twenty-six years that I taught high school English, many students noticed an unfortunate pattern among our assigned texts. “We always have to read such depressing books in our English classes,” they would complain. “Aren’t any of the classics happy?” It was a valid point, because our department curriculum—like that […]
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