by Rafal Reyzer You’ve heard that to become proficient at any specialized skill, you need at least 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.

by Ashlee McNicol Being a writer is no easy feat. You stay up late, wake up early, and repeat. You spend hours and hours creating fantas

We’ve all felt it at one time or another. The story loses its shine and you’re left with a half-completed story. Why does this happen, and h

The above is a classic (pun fully intended) example of foreshadowing. The witches lay out some key elements of the plot and do it in such a

When you’re first starting a story, there’s a lot to think about—your characters, plot, and world-building, to say nothing of critical quest

by ARHuelsenbeck In the YouTube ad for her MasterClass, Joyce Carol Oates says, “The great enemy of writing isn’t your own lack of talen

by Meg Dowell Should you write today? YES! 1. You have some free time. 2. You’ve committed to a schedule and you need to practice sti

by Doug Lewars It’s easy isn’t it? You wrote it so naturally you remember it. Such is not always the case. I’m reminded of a book I wrot

by Kelsie Engen I’ve talked earlier this year about my two-year writing plan, where I’ve scheduled out my WIPs and made rough guidelines

For most writers, the path to publication is full of obstacles, detours, and potholes. Tenacity and resilience are required to reach your de

by K. Ross Writing is tricky. Trying to express your meaning clearly can be hard enough, but also making it engaging can be quite the ba

There are a lot of books and articles that talk about the craft of writing good characters, their motivations, how to give them personalitie

The dreaded synopsis. Anyone who’s chosen the traditional path into publishing know that these pesky buggers are enough to drive a writer to

Ask agents offering you representation for at least three client references. Contact them.

Every author has a “bad” book to their name.

I expect most people, whether they agree with it or not, are familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality classification system which divides

Go ahead, Google something along the lines of prologues in novels. I’ll wait.

by J.J. Hensley For seven years, I had the pleasure of being a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service. During that time, I

by Doug Lewars (originally posted on ryanlanz.com) I enjoy writing in the Fantasy genre and World Building is a part of that. It may or ma

Everyone writes, often because they have to. If you’ve fallen in love with writing for pleasure, it’s easy to forget you don’t have to stick