Category: How To and Tips
Are You Stuck?
How to get past that brick wall and start writing again It’s happened to all of us. Fingers flying, the word count is ticking up nicely, then suddenly, BAM. You sit down to write, and it’s like dragging a refrigerator up the hill. You make yourself finish the chapter, but it has all the charm […]
What I Wish I’d Known While Querying
Like many writers, my debut novel is not the first completed novel I’ve written. In fact, I secured representation with an agent for the second book project I queried. She called me on a bright December morning. I will never forget her voice on the other end of the phone: “I’m in love with this! […]
How To Use Your Inspiration Effectively
Every now and then someone asks me where I get my inspiration. My answer must sound vague and generalized, maybe even tinted with avoidance. However, it is one hundred percent true. Inspiration is everywhere. I’ve traveled some wonderful places, and sure, inspiration is there. But the best sparks I’ve ever had sprouted from something simple; […]
THE CHAMELEON LEADER
By Dr. Ranya Nehmeh Chameleons are small slow-moving lizards with an extended tail, protruding eyes and a long tongue. The most unique characteristic of the chameleon is its ability to change colour in order to adapt and blend into its surroundings. If we take these characteristics and use the chameleon as a metaphor for a […]
Writing Challenges: Part I of III: Who Are You To Tell This Tale?
Who Are You to Tell This Tale? It took me a long time to love writing. When I first started out, my writer friends and I used to commiserate about how horrible it was, how hard it was to make ourselves sit in that chair, how we couldn’t wait to get something, anything, on the […]
The Best Character I Never Wrote—Unless You Count the Prologue and Epilogue
Her name was Kate, and she was eleven. She had a best friend named Emma, a father who was (still is, actually) a renowned oncologist, and a mother who vied with Florence Henderson (of the Brady Bunch) for Mother of the Year. Kate was dead from the moment I created her. She had long blond […]
A Strong Sense of Place
Should I have chosen an exotic location in which to set my new novel? Research can be done anywhere in the world (or at least, it could, pre-covid). Armed with a suitcase, laptop and my writing head firmly switched on, I set forth on a magical adventure to research my new book. But it was […]
Faking Insanity: Writing The Novel
Back in the days when I was first sitting down to write my novel, I’d read anything I could get my hands on that described how an author first got published. I was immediately drawn in, looking for clues how the author “made it.” I wanted to know the essence of that experience. I wanted […]
10 Published Authors Share Their Best Writing Advice
By Marissa DeCuir The writer’s life can be creatively fulfilling and packed with possibility — and it can also be arduous, frustrating, and downright lonely. Sometimes you just need another writer friend (or ten!) who gets it, has been there, and can give you that little bit of encouragement or great piece of advice that […]
A Psychologist Models Self-Therapy Through Writing
By Dr. Nancy Farber Kent Writing. Writing is a tool we can use to discover the solutions to our problems. I write, write, write my way to my answers. When feeling angry, afraid, sad, frustrated, lonely, I just start writing…and the answers come. From my experience, I have discovered that when we write, we unlock […]
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