Helping you find your story
I was inspired to write this based on my experience receiving submissions for my Bigfoot Country Anthology. It applies to any anthology or magazine submission. Read the requirements and be sure to send in a professional document that meets all the standards requested. I have received close to a hundred
Hi, should have done this last week, but motivation to do things when nothing seems to be happening is difficult. Speaking about motivation, let’s look at the difference between a slump and writer’s block. A slump is when your writing slows down or drops in quality, and it is a
One of the frustrations of writing is going to revise and realizing how many writing mistakes you’ve made. Repeated words, too many adverbs, weak verbs, static description, the list goes on and on. Revision is a humbling experience. But hold on, all is not lost. Those mistakes tell us something
Hobson’s choice may have originated in the 1500s with an innkeeper who told customers they could have the horse closest to them, or none at all. In 1954 a movie was made with the title. While the original meaning was more ‘take it or leave it, ‘ it now has
Why write a review? The first answer is that authors love reviews, most of a little more than we should. Good or bad, they show that someone read our book and cared enough to write down their thoughts. The second answer is that it will make you a better writer
Introducing a character to the reader is a bit like introducing that special someone to your parents. The temptation is to tell everything you know about them so the reader will love them as much as you do. The problem is that page and the extolling of the character’s looks,
Book Template The link above will download an updated .docx file with paragraph styles I use most often defined. I’ve set them now so the proper style follows automatically so you don’t need to remember to change them. The advantage is you don’t have to wade through the dozens on
We don’t pay a lot of attention to tense when we talk. It feels natural and easy to slot our words into past, present or future. In writing it can be more complicated. If we are writing in past tense, the past is our ‘present’ in the story. To
Writing may be a hobby, but if you’re publishing your books or stories, you have a responsibility to produce a quality story. I’ve got lots of articles on how to do that. What I want to address today is what to do when a story is awful. I’m not talking
Preparing your Manuscript for Editing Workshop This the outline I used for a workshop to help prepare writers to make the most effective use out of an editorl What is editing? Content/Structural Editing Foundational issues: Plot, character, tone, structure, world building Copy/Line Editing Prose, sentences, paragraphs, pacing. Word use and