Genres for the Independent Author
Genres are a fascinating part of the writing profession. They mean nothing and everything; they are both limiting and freeing; they are arbiters and arbitrary...
Writing, General
Signaling Your Genre from the Start
If you’re an independent author, you’ve probably done a lot of work on your title, blurb, and cover. Don’t screw it all up with the...
Writing Action
I am going to get right to the point and tell you the secret of writing action scenes: It’s not about the action. Like everything...
Simplicity
“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.” Walt Whitman Way back when I was...
Speculative Fiction — The Big “If” Umbrella
More and more, books and publications that were once exclusively science fiction or fantasy or horror are calling themselves “speculative fiction.” But what is speculative...
Food for Thought?
We talk a lot about how to write better and the tools you need to do that, but we don’t talk a lot about the...
Writing That Resonates
Resonate. It’s the word I use most often when talking about writing. But what does it really mean? Take the word home. The dictionary definition...
What to Do When the Writing Won’t Work
Sometimes the writing just won’t work. The words won’t come, or they’re all wrong when they do. Even if you manage to type something, you...
Plotters vs. Pantsers
In the eternal debate about what is the best way to write, two terms have come into common usage: plotter and pantser. Plotters are the...
Don’t Get Rid of All the Negative People in Your Life
Let’s talk about critics. There are a lot of affirmations rolling around the internet about how you must get rid of the negative people in...