P. Barreraa day ago4 minWriters Need to Rethink RewritesRewrites have a negative connotation in the writing world, and when listening to some writers talk about them, you’d suspect they were on pa
P. Barrera3 days ago6 minCan the Cold Case of Book Marketing Be Solved?Comparatively speaking, writing a novel is the fun, easy, first step of the self-publishing process. The second step, creating an attention-
P. Barrera5 days ago3 minTo Prologue or Not To PrologueShould you include a prologue in your novel? I have known writer friends who have debated this for years. Some love them, some hate them, bu
P. BarreraMay 303 minWrite What You Know: Sage Advice or Hogwash?While writing my first novel, I attended a lot of classes and read tons of how-to books. “Show, Don’t Tell” was a mantra I heard from most w
P. BarreraMay 283 minFinding the Right Beginning For Your NovelSome beginnings come easy; others, well, they bite, claw, and resist like no tomorrow, leaving behind frazzled writers.
P. BarreraMay 262 minWhen Your Characters Won’t BehaveHave you ever thought to yourself that your characters are in charge, and not you?
P. BarreraMay 2410 minBeing a Better Writer: Character Development and Character GrowthCharacters. There’s no force more central to any story you tell. Be it a run-and-gun thriller or a dramatic love dodecahedron, a tale focus
P. BarreraMay 2210 min150 DIY Ways to Market Your BookI am asked quite often the best ways to market a book. The most frequent questions I get revolve around making it as cheap as possible yet c
P. BarreraMay 202 minThinking About Theme When WritingSimply stated, the theme of a story is a universal truth about the human condition that your story illustrates. Your theme may be as general
P. BarreraMay 184 minCreativity in Editing: A Good or Bad Thing?This is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog-hop, designed to help encourage authors and foster discussions about writing topics
P. BarreraMay 164 minYes, Writers, it is Possible to Get Past Your Fear of Marketing Yourself as an AuthorBy and large, the biggest problem I run into with struggling authors is the challenge they have around marketing themselves.
P. BarreraMay 143 minThe Missing Piece – What Most Antagonists Lack Every reader loves a good villain, and most writers love them too. If you rack your brain about some of the most memorable characters in..
P. BarreraMay 123 minDoes Your Story Need More Tension?Have you read a story where the character knew everything that was going on and merely went through a checklist to solve the problem?
P. BarreraMay 103 minHow to Write With All Five SensesWhen you are describing something, it looks a certain way. Yes indeedy. We get that. We got it three paragraphs ago. We got the visual...
P. BarreraMay 83 minWhat Does It Mean to Write About Happiness? A few weeks ago, I came across a review on Goodreads mentioning Laurie Colwin and how, in that reader’s opinion, she was one of the few ...
P. BarreraMay 63 min6 Myths About WritingAs with any other profession, you will face many opinions from different people when it comes to writing, who may, most of the time, have...
P. BarreraMay 44 minHow to Write a Query Letter that Makes Agents and Editors SwoonWriting a query letter is an art, they say. What they really mean is that it’s really gosh-darn hard.
P. BarreraMay 23 min6 Myths About WritingAs with any other profession, you will face many opinions from different people when it comes to writing, who may, most of the time, have...
P. BarreraApr 303 minCommercial Fiction vs. Literary Fiction—Which Do You Write and How to Tell the Difference?As soon as you sit down to market your work, you need to know what it is that you’ve written. You may have some idea from comparing your...
P. BarreraApr 284 minWriters are CourageousWriters are courageous. However what makes writers courageous?
