Category: How To and Tips
Bring Everyone In With You: A Strategy For Those Days When You Feel Like You’re Not
by Rachel Stone Most days, I’m am author. The odd day, like today, I’m a speaker who tells people how I came to be an author in hopes of inspiring them to make space for their passions. But lately, I’ve felt unjustified in calling myself either. My current manuscript has me totally stuck. My last […]
Writer’s Block and the Refrigerator
What is the spark that ignites your creativity? What sets your imagination on fire, sending you to your laptop or notebook to record those thoughts before they fly away? What keeps you moving forward? This is the best part of writing, letting the words fly across the page as your characters take shape and you […]
A Compass for Stormy Seas by Dessy Levinson
By Dessy Levinson Here are two truths and a lie: Our nervous system floods our minds in ways that become overwhelming. Our brain can parse overwhelm and clear it if we focus more on what is troubling us. There’s a way of navigating overwhelm that—over time—can steer you toward becoming your most caring and creative […]
WRITING AND TRAUMA: Finding Your Voice
By Cynthia Moore I started writing at 6, filling notebooks with scribbled poems and stories, to drown out the sound of my stepfather’s rage. At night, when the gin flowed freely, his yelling filled the house and all I could do was write, write, write. In the morning, I would tenderly offer a crumpled poem […]
Who’s Driving This Novel, Anyway?
By Ellen Meister I’m a pretty intrepid driver. By that I mean I’m unfazed crossing the bridge from suburban Long Island, where I live, to the hurried, harried, horn-hectic streets of Manhattan. But Brooklyn? Dear god, Brooklyn knocks the stuffing out of me. And yet, I chose to set my most recent novel there. A […]
From Headlines to Page: How I Transformed a National News Story into a Suspense Novel
By Regina Buttner Several years ago in my former hometown, the local media was abuzz with the tale of a young man whose parents were compelled to take the drastic step of evicting him from their suburban home for refusing to get a job and contribute to the household. It was a hard-to-believe story that […]
In-Limbo? Time to Write, Market, Grow!
By Donna Norman-Carbone The term in-limbo has some negative connotations. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines it as: a place or state of confinement or oblivion, one of uncertainty. The definition I associate with this term, however, is a transitional state or place. As a writer, I often find myself in a state of limbo whether I […]
Literary Tools for Next Level Writing By Jessica McCann
By Jessica McCann When a couple has been together 35 years, they develop a sort of code for sharing opinions. For example, when I tell my husband that his guy movie is “hilarious,” he knows I mean idiotic. (Think anything with Chevy Chase.) Likewise, when he remarks that a book is “literary” or “poignant,” what […]
Nancy Drew’s Newest Case: Not Just a Homemaker
By Paulette Brooks When I was in junior high, I had a girlfriend who owned the entire collection of the Nancy Drew Mystery series. Once a week we would hang out at her house after school and I would take home the next treasure, returning that book in seven days. Our fun ritual petered out […]
The Common Wages by Helen Winslow Black
By Helen Winslow Black I’m often asked how I go about writing the scenes in my books that are super tough. The ones that depict domestic violence, or navigate the emotional impact of discovering lies or secrets in a marriage. The answer is: With great delicacy. No matter what kind of situations I create, there […]
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