Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Too often we talk about how tough the writing world is. Today let me turn the tables and talk about the best things about being a writer today in 2018.
Writing Craft
Making Word Counts Count
Blogger: Cynthia Ruchti
Word counts. They ramp the tension for writers on deadlines. They confound new writers who discover too late that the average contemporary romance is not 400,000 words, as are their debut unpublished epics. Word counts are …
What Do Readers Want?
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Recently I watched a TV interview with Ann Patchett and Daniel Pink on their favorite books of 2017. You can read the interview or watch it here.
I enjoyed the entire book-review approach to the …
The Perfect Blog
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
I planned the perfect blog for you today. I was in the kitchen preparing a meal when it came to me. So very creative and I knew it would interest our blog readers. As I continued …
The Agony and Ecstasy of Novel Writing
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
I’m not a novelist. I never will be. But on a regular basis I get to watch fiction writers spin their magic.
Well, it seems like magic to those of us who don’t have the gift …
That X-Factor
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
The X-factor is that indefinable “something” that denotes star quality. In books it’s the something that makes a project an exception that overcomes all our naysaying and all our rules.
At a writer’s conference, when an editor …
How to Get the Most from Your Beta Readers
Blogger: Mary Keeley
I highly recommend participating in a critique group. You can improve your own craft as you critique your partners’ work often as much as you can by receiving their feedback on your work. But this can’t replace …
Ruined by Blog Writing
Janet Kobobel Grant
Publishers remain eager to connect with blog writers who have amassed faithful readers. Therefore, an agent’s interest in a potential client is piqued at the mention of a strong blog readership.
Because blogging can leapfrog a writer …
Writing Success: A 3-Pronged Approach
Blogger: Mary Keeley
Let your heart not grow weary from the increasing volume of proposals competing for fewer publishing slots. If you are patient, you’ll continue to have opportunity with traditional publishers as long as they are still acquiring. I …
Secondary Characters: Their Purpose for Being
Blogger: Mary Keeley
Are you using your story’s secondary characters to their full purpose? They can make your book stand out from the crowd of other books in your genre. Practically as many ways to use these characters exist as …