Tag: featured
Going to the Writing Gym: On Writing Between Modes
When we go to the gym, we do a variety of exercise routines to strengthen different muscles. Likewise, writing in different modes can stretch a range of writer muscles. Fiction (particularly genre fiction) prioritizes reader engagement through plot, movement and voice. Ideas tend to be embodied through plot movements, dialogue and character arcs. Because fiction […]
To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish: That is the Question
Loads of people dream of becoming celebrated authors, seeing their books prominently displayed in bookstores and airports across the globe. It’s the fantasy equivalent of moving to Hollywood and becoming the next Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansen, or Jennifer Lawrence; something that only happens for one person out of every hundred thousand hopefuls. After writing my […]
Erotic Fiction Writing Tips
Erotic Fiction Writing Tips By Autumn Bardot A steamy story. A classic bodice ripper. A risqué passage. It’s all about sex, right? Maybe not. There may be a whole lot more than meets the eye. The truth is, writing erotic fiction is both fun and a lot of hard (no pun intended) work. I write […]
Writers, Bombers, India, and US
I live in Norway now, and when people ask where I’m from, I say, of course, that I’m American. If conversation turns to my writing, and to my forthcoming novel, Where the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow, set in early 20th century India, they sometimes ask why I don’t write about America. (In Norway, the word […]
Writing About Addiction and Recovery Bonnie E. Carlson
I didn’t start out with the intention of becoming someone who writes about alcoholism and addiction. Or maybe I did. This essay contributes to the body of work on writing about difficult things (see “Why and How I Write Novels about Tough Subjects” by Ellen Marie Wiseman on this site) such as mental illness (e.g., […]
Dick’s, If You’re Listening: Women Like to Play and Read About Sports
By Susie Orman Schnall With the announcement that Dick’s Sporting Goods, the largest U.S. sporting-goods chain is reorienting its retail focus toward female buyers, everyone but women are realizing the spending power controlled by women, our love of sports, and our desire to sometimes buy running shoes, yoga pants, and soccer balls that aren’t pink. […]
No Place is a Saint by Alison Stine
I live in rural, remote Appalachia. You may know this place from a bestselling memoir, or many national news articles on poverty, coal, disability, drugs, or politics—articles written overwhelmingly by people who never lived here. Then you don’t really know this place at all. Central Appalachia is the setting for my novel, Road Out of […]
UK And US Editors: Double The Fun – And Double The Edits?
By Anika Scott International situations are normal for me. I’m American, I live in Germany, and my wonderful agent is based in the UK. When the book deals for my debut novel Finding Clara (UK) / The German Heiress (US) started rolling in, I hadn’t really given a thought to how the editors at the […]
Authors Interviewing Their Characters: Eleni Kyriacou
Hello, my name is Eleni Kyriacou and my debut novel, SHE CAME TO STAY, is set in London’s glitzy, smoggy Soho in 1952, among the Cypriot community. It was selected by Hachette’s Future Bookshelf initiative, which was created to discover unpublished authors from underrepresented backgrounds. Prepare yourselves to meet one of my lead characters, Bebba […]
Rediscovering My Voice
Mine never was a voice to blend in and certain never to be stifled. From the moment I was old enough to join the local children’s choir, I was a thorn in my director’s side, and despite her encouragement in cheerful falsetto, her attempts to teach me balance, my voice – already too big and […]
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