Writing short stories is a great way to play around with your writing. You can try different genres, a new style, or just write something to take a break from your current novel. These stories can be submitted to contests or to anthologies or magazines for publication. Please note that Read more
How do you know you’ve made it as a writer? Maybe when you’ve written a whole book. When you have an agent. Or when someone you don’t personally know reads and likes your book. It could be when you see your book in Barnes & Noble. The list goes on Read more
You have a website built, but now you need to put information on it. Start simple and work your way into more content as you progress in your career. You’ll need to set up a homepage, an about page, a contact page, and a place to sign up for your Read more
Some of you are saying, “I don’t even have a book done yet.” Exactly. If you’re serious about publishing books, you need to get your name out now. Marketing is the only way you will get your books to sell. No time is too soon to get a website. You Read more
We’ve covered first person and third person omniscient POVs; now it’s time for third person limited narration. This is narrating a story in third person but limiting it to only one perspective at a time. When you’re in a person’s viewpoint, you can only tell what that person sees, does, Read more
Last week we discussed first person POV, and this week we are going to focus on third person omniscient narration. This is when you narrate a story from an outside perspective as if you’re watching a play on stage. It’s a bit like playing god. You can jump to any Read more
One of the biggest problems writers have is point of view (POV) errors. Every story is narrated from a perspective. It can be an uninvolved narrator, the main character, or several characters; but POV must be consistent throughout the book. There are three main POVs: first person, third person omniscient, Read more
Writing groups, also called critique groups, are indispensable for a writer. It’s where you gather with other passionate writers and critique each other’s work. Everyone has a different reason to join one, but it’s important to know how to find a writing group and how to be a beneficial part Read more
The biggest question when it comes to dialogue is: how do you make dialogue realistic? I’m going on the record telling you that this is the wrong question for a new writer to ask. What you need to learn, and what the pros already know, is how to make dialogue Read more
We already talked about dialogue tags, but what if you don’t want to repeat “he said” and “she said” a million times? This is where action beats come in handy. Action beats are sentences that break up dialogue and describe the character and setting in more detail. It’s a more Read more