Category: How To and Tips
CALL YOURSELF A WRITER
I recently took part in a virtual author event with two other women writers. Let me say how much I have come to appreciate the magic of Zoom video conferencing, aside from not having a paid account which meant getting dumped off the call after forty minutes. No problem, everyone, including the audience, was able […]
Write Right… Right?
By Anju Gattani Writing is organized thinking. This little sentence comes after thirty years, countless rewrites of the Winds of Fire series, a former decade-long career as an international freelance journalist (as my husband and I hop-scotched across continents with two kids in tow) and working under the guidance and expertise of countless editors. Oh… […]
My Top Tips For Writing Historical Novels
By Mary Chamberlain As a historical novelist – and also a historian – I’m often asked for suggestions or advice so here are my top tips for writing historical novels… Tailor your research. What sort of a historical novel are you writing? Are you, like Hilary Mantel, using fiction to enter into historical debate, as […]
Starting With Setting
As a reader, I want books to transport me out of my own bubble to somewhere else, whether that’s a different city or country, a different time period, or a character’s socio-economic or professional world. I think a lot of us read books for that very reason—setting. As a writer, I prefer to begin with […]
Publishing A Book About Groupsex…During A Pandemic
Writing my second non-fiction book was easier in some ways than writing my first. I had a better sense of how long the work would take me, and how to balance research and writing time. What no one could have planned for is that about half the work on this book would take place during […]
My Inspiration For Writing Comedy
By Rosemond Sarpong Owens HRH ( Her Royal Highness- The Queen of Comedy) I always knew I was funny. What I did not know was just how funny I really was. Had someone told me I would one day stand on stage making people laugh, I would never have believed them. Why not? Growing up, […]
Two Green Comedians Walk into a Café…
By Moreen Littrell “It just wasn’t funny,” said Sheila, a fellow stand-up comic, when I asked her what she thought of the set I’d performed two days earlier in the Main Room at The World Famous Comedy Store. It was Friday afternoon and we were sitting on the red velvet couch at Insomnia Café on […]
Inner Demons & Desires: Exploring the ‘Why’ of a Character’s Behaviour
Inner Demons & Desires: Exploring the ‘Why’ of a Character’s Behaviour by Ann Gosslin Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.’ — Carl Gustav Jung When we leave childhood behind and step onto the world’s stage, it’s tempting to believe that we are masters of […]
What Women Leave Behind: The Journey of Writing Under the Light of the Italian Moon
What Women Leave Behind: The Journey of Writing Under the Light of the Italian Moon by Jennifer Anton I started writing Under the Light of the Italian Moon in 2006, which became my year of coming to a new understanding of women. I was pregnant with my daughter; every part of my body was inflated […]
Something to Laugh About: Six Ways to Add Humor to Your Novel
By Marilyn Simon Rothstein Author of Lift and Separate and Husbands and Other Sharp Objects 1. Start with a sense of humor. No joke. Seriously. You either have a sense of humor—or you don’t. If you rarely laugh—or see the amusing side in anything, you should not force humor into your work. This includes any […]
Recent Comments