Archetype Writing Blog

I'm really curious about what people are looking for when they visit the Archetype site, so I thought I'd ask. If you often come looking for more than one thing, either pick the thing that is most important to you or write about the other things in the Comments section for this blog entry.  Please also leave feedback in the Comments section about  whether you find what you need, what you'd like to see, etc.

A couple of people have asked me recently about the now-defunct newsletter.  I decided some time ago that a monthly newsletter served little purpose when I could post updates and news as often as I like on the blog.  Therefore, I gave up the newsletter in favor of the blog.

I felt the site itself was getting a little unwieldy, so I recently reorganized parts of it, including the Real Psychology and Resources areas.  I also sorted through and pruned some areas that weren't being used very often.  If you find that something you think was really important is now gone, just let me know.

Thanks!

Kate started doing this, and then Elana took up the torch, and then I caught Annie doing it too.  So what the heck, right?  We'll see what happens.

I usually have several works in progress at any given time.  So here's the tally at present:

Contemporary fantasy/paranormal romance (can't decide) that I'm waiting for some friends to finish reading so I can make appropriate changes and send the rewrites out.  (Elana, have I mentioned yet today how much your editing helped? ;-)

NaNo Novel is at about 65,000 words, which is obviously much too short.  I was feeling pretty apathetic about it.  Not sure why.  These are the least angst-ridden characters I've ever created.  Could that have something to do with it?  Or perhaps I was writing so fast during NaNo that I never had the chance to really get the colors and flavors of each scene, and now I'm still having trouble doing that.  I did switch the novel over from third person to first person, and that seems to be helping, at least with my feelings of apathy, at least somewhat.  I am also hoping that as I get farther into the novel I'll feel more enthused.

Nonfiction project - I've gotten the first drafts of two chapters mostly written.  Since writing is harder than editing for me, I'm trying to write several chapters at a time.

Now let me talk about my very serious, very GINORMOUS problem when it comes to my WIPs.  The Internet.  I knew when the internet went wireless that I was in trouble.  Before, I'd sit down with my laptop, play a couple of games of solitaire, and then be good to go.  Now I'll get out my WIP.  And then I have to check my email.  And then I have to check Facebook.  And then I have to check RallyStorm.  And then I have to check my email again.  And then I wonder why I never get anything done.

I need one of these:

  Ugh.  What do you guys do to deal with the siren call of the internet?

This time's blog chain question was asked by Leah Clifford, who recently accepted representation for her novel Reapers!  Kate shared her take on the topic in the post before mine, and Michelle will explore her dark side in the next post. Leah's challenge was:

Show me your dark side...What do you do to amp up the conflict?  What pins do you stick in the little voodoo dolls? How do you torture your characters???  

Have you ever seen the TV show nip/tuck?  It's unusual show, because you're watching along, and they imply that something really edgy is going to happen.  A main character is feeling kind of turned on by the super-expensive sex doll modeled after his business partner's ex-girlfriend. A (male) main character is in danger of being raped...by another man. A patient character has threatened to perform her own mastectomy.  Most writers would turn away, getting their characters out just in the nick of time. Of the few writers who decided to go all the way, most of them would never show the actual event. In nip/tuck, they Go There.  All the way.  And they show all of it. The sex with the doll. The rape. The woman who does the mastectomy on herself with an electric carving knife in the doctors' waiting room. And then they show the fallout. These characters never get a break.

Going There is what intrigues me.  Not what happens when the hero gets there in the nick of time, but when the worst the hero can possibly imagine happens. And then sometimes...that's not all. Next come a few things the hero couldn't possibly have imagined in his worst nightmares.  And then, of course, there's the fallout.  Shattered relationships. Grief. Nightmares. Depression. Post-traumatic stress disorder.  Suicidality. And the humiliation of having had all those reactions in front of other people.

Maybe it's having been on the frontlines and counseled people who have had things worse than they could ever imagine happen to them. Maybe it's just having lived through a few things in my own life.  But I Go There in my fiction.  A lot.

I don't see it as torturing my characters. I see it like this: Life can really, truly be that ugly.  Human beings do horrible things to other human beings, and sometimes they even do them intentionally.  I don't pretend otherwise when I tell a story.

One of the best ways to learn about the dark side of life is to be willing to be open, and to listen. Everyone has suffered indignities, and some have suffered horrors.  But those things are invisible unless you're open and willing to other people, including the really nasty, awful bits.  Like Mary said, the people who seem the most benign are often the ones who hide the most.  Because they've had to learn to seem benign to be accepted by a world too horrified by the realities of their lives.

The same thing is true with your characters.  You have to be willing to really listen to them, and if they have to Go There, you need to be brave enough to go with them.  Carl Jung talked about how we all have a dark side to our personalities, but only a few of us are willing to confront that side and integrate it into the Self.  I've always believed that part of what makes Stephen King so great is that he faces his own shadow and then writes about what he finds.

So how do you do that , avoid giving in to the urge to look away from the dark stuff?

Years ago, when I was learning to write, I came across an article that said the most important word in your story is NO. Whatever your character wants or needs, the answer must always be NO.  Once in a while, it may seem that the character is getting a yes, but in reality that yes must ultimately drive them farther from what they want or need. I believe strongly in the NO.  It always leads to a better story.

Have you ever seen Cool Hand Luke?  No matter how many times they drag Luke back to the chain gang, he always takes off again. He can't seem to help it. After the second time he escapes, the boss makes him dig a trench.  Then fill the trench.  Then dig the trench.  Then fill the trench. Over and over and over, until Luke finally breaks down, half dead, and begs to be allowed to stop.  But they keep pushing him. The other inmates turn away, horrified by what's left of this free spirit they all admired.

Still, later in the film, Luke escapes again, this time with another inmate.  The friend laughs, crowing that Luke's groveling was so convincing that "They didn't know you was foolin!"  And Luke says "Foolin, huh? You can't fool them about somethin like that.  They broke me."

So forget a little spilled milk, a few broken eggs. For me the real question is...what does it take to break your character, and what happens to him after he's broken?

On Wednesday, I attended a talk and book signing by career coach, syndicated newspaper columnist, and book author Andrea Kay. Andrea was talking about her new book, Work's a Bitch and Then You Make It Work: 6 Steps to Go from Pissed Off to Powerful.
Although the book is ostensibly geared toward the corporate professional, Andrea talks a lot about choosing to have a positive attitude about your work and finding ways to make sure that work is noticed, even in an economy in recession. Though writers might appreciate the book's advice to help them keep (and even move up in) their day jobs, they can also benefit from her advice with regards to their writing careers.

A lot of writers feel depressed or pissed off when they receive yet another rejection, especially in light of a struggling publishing market. Andrea argues that some changes in the way you approach things --putting yourself out there, knowing your strengths, and deciding not to be a victim of a bad economy-- can make all the difference between failure and success.

I do have a bias about the book, since I'm quoted in it and because I often work with Andrea, but I was really inspired by her talk on Wednesday, and wanted to pass along some hope that you do have power over your destiny as a writer. Check the book out on Amazon or the next time you visit your local bookseller. If you happen to be living in Dayton, Ohio, you can catch her talk next week at Books & Co. at the Greene:

New Q&A: Domestic Violence: How would a psychological professional respond to a woman who goaded an ex-boyfriend into hitting her?

Query Letters: Ten Ways to Hook a Literary Agent by Lisa Silverman
Here are ten query letter tips--some dos, some don'ts--to get you on track toward the representation and publication of your manuscript.

Holly Lisle's Bring Your Novel to Life article series:
You've read through what you've written, and you've discovered that your words don't move you. They don't make you want to keep reading. They don't make you laugh or cry. This series will help you fix that.

• Bring Your Novel to Life: Does Your Novel Have A Heartbeat? (part 1)
• Bring Your Novel to Life: How To Find Your Novel's Pulse (part 2) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Burying Your Novel's Message (part 3) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Playing Chicken with Your Story (part 4)
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Dig Deeper With Your Novel's Subthemes (part 5) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Interweaving Your Novel's Themes And Subthemes (part 6) 
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Planning A Heart-Stopping Story (part 7)
• Bring Your Novel to Life: Life, Passion... Deadline (part 8) 

Novel Synopsis Basics (part 1) and Writing a Novel Synopsis That Rocks (part 2) by HL Dyer

Yep, it's blog chain time again. Terri asked a question similar -- yet different -- from Elana's question about getting out of a writing funk. While some of the other blog chainers are tackling that question, I'm going to go with the alternative one:

Do you brainstorm with a friend when you are plotting, or do you prefer to be the only one who knows what your characters are going to do?

It's kind of funny the way Terri worded her question: "...do you prefer to be the only one who knows what your characters are going to do?" I generally don't know what my characters are going to do until they do it -- that's the problem!  *grin*

I only recently discovered the magic of brainstorming with buddies.  (Or...most likely in all actuality torturing said buddies with my confusion and indecision.)

It's hard for me to talk about where I'm going with a novel, because if I talk in any detail about something I haven't written yet, I can't write it.  The magic is just...gone.  But I tried writing up to the point at which I got stuck and then hurling myself on my friends' mercy during NaNoWriMo, and it was helpful.  My favorite was when people would just start extrapolating from what had happened so far in my novel.  "What if this happened next?"  "What if that got in the way?"  Anything that forces me out of my mental set (ie my normal way of thinking) is welcome. In fact, I kept wishing people would extrapolate more wildly and really jar me.

I view being stuck as an inability to see options for my story when options always exist.  Thanks to my thinking patterns (which normally work for me), I have trouble seeing alternatives for my characters -- perhaps because many of those alternatives are actions that I, personally, might never take.  I see brainstorming buddies as people with different perspectives and approaches and blind spots, and my hope is that they will show me different possibilities and open my eyes to fresh alternatives.  Once I've been pushed out of my mental set, the wheels usually start turning.

I'm curious, dear reader -- what kinds of things do your brainstorming buddies do to jar you out of your stuckness?  What is most helpful to you?

Just a reminder that submissions for ABNA begin tomorrow, February 2nd, and will only be open for a week. Here's ABNA's cheat sheet on what, when, and where.

Recently, Amazon.com and Penguin Group (USA) announced the second annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA), an international competition seeking fresh new writing voices. One Grand Prize winner will receive a full publishing contract with Penguin including a $25,000 advance. Contest details are listed below, and further information and official rules can be found at www.amazon.com/abna.

What is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award?
The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is an opportunity for emerging fiction writers to join a community of authors on Amazon.com, showcase their work and compete for a chance to get published. Sponsored in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award first launched in October 2007 and received more than 5,000 initial entries. In the inaugural contest, Amazon customers voted and named Bill Loehfelm the winner with his novel, “Fresh Kills.” Several of the other Top 10 finalists also received publishing deals with Penguin.

What is the grand prize?
A full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute the Grand Prize winner's winning manuscript as a published book, including promotion for the book on Amazon.com and a $25,000 advance.

How do interested authors enter?
Contest submission period begins February 2nd, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time) and ends February 8th, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when the first 10,000 entries have been received, whichever is earlier.

How do interested authors get more information about the contest?
Visit www.amazon.com/abna to sign up to receive contest updates, get tips on how to enter, participate on the ABNA message boards as well as find full contest rules.

For this blog chain, Elana has a question and a demand ;-)

Not sure what the Pool of Writing Funk is? Maybe you've heard of the Lake of Self-Doubt. No? The Ocean of What-the-heck-am-I-doing? Or maybe each rain drop in your life seems to whisper, "You're not good enough." These all contribute to the pool.

So...what do I do? Well, first, I use denial. Seriously. See, I don't really believe in Writer's Block. I believe there is always a project you can be working on, so there's really no excuse to not write. If I'm completely stymied by a current project, I pull out an old one and edit away. (It helps that I enjoy editing.) Plus, if I'm plagued by thoughts like "I'm not good enough" and "What was I thinking?", editing helps. After all, I'm working to make my stuff better.

Another trick: I take a break. Now, I write each and every day, for the most part, and I have for years. I always have some set-aside time at the end of the day. But once in a while I'm just too tired, or I'm feeling stressed and overworked. In those situations, I'll sometimes deliberately take a day or two off. After two days, I'm usually ready to dive back in. I believe it's important to give yourself permission from time to time to set aside even writing. I even did this during NaNoWriMo. Just don't set your work aside for more than a couple days, or you'll get out of the habit of writing. And don't take too many "vacations" from your writing because you're in a funk. A few times a month (think like 1-3) is plenty.

As for when I just feel wholly inadequate and like I'm never going to make it as a writer...well, that kind of solves itself. I never really became a writer; I just realized I was a writer. If I ever really tried to convince myself I was going to quit writing, I think I'd have a panic attack. For me writing is like breathing -- a necessary, life-sustaining act.

So while I sometimes throw myself on the proverbial floor and wallow in a funk of self-pity, I do try to limit the time I spend there. After two or three days, it's time to pick myself up and figure out what I'm going to do about the problem. I have some great books on writing, so sometimes I pull those out and learn how to be a better writer. Or maybe I gather information on local writing conferences. Or read some agents' blogs so I can better understand the publishing biz.

Sometimes it also helps to help someone else with their writing. For example, I go check out the Query Review area over on the QueryTracker.net Forum. A lot of times there's someone just starting out with a query, and I can help them see a different approach. That also reminds me that I have a lot to offer others; that is, I'm an accomplished enough writer that I believe my help is useful

I want your favorite funny and/or thing that makes you happy.

All right, you can laugh at this if you like, but the thing that always makes me happy, no matter what, is my pets. One really likes to watch TV with me, so sometimes we'll curl up with a good movie or an episode of a television show I truly adore (which pretty much means Farscape or Supernatural), and for an hour or two I'm engrossed in something else and also spending time with my pet. (Research actually shows that petting your resident furball reduces stress and even produces physiological benefits like lowered blood pressure.)

I also have some places I can go online that are pretty much guaranteed to crack me up. icanhascheezburger.com is one; failblog.org is another.


As always, be sure to check out Kate's post (before mine) and Michelle's post (after mine), as well as the other posts in the chain!

New Articles on the Archetype Site!

Writing the Query Letter Part 1 - The Hook by Elana Johnson
There are literally hundreds of websites where you can go to find out how to write a query letter. But the fact is, you don't want just a query letter. You want a great query letter--one that sets yours above the others.

Writing the Query Letter Part 2 - The Setup by Elana Johnson
Once you've hooked the agent to read your whole query letter, you've got to deliver. You can't just have a hook and then let everything else slide. Following the hook, you need to get to the problem.

Writing the Query Letter Part 3 - The Conflict by Elana Johnson
Now to the part that everyone wants to read—the conflict. Every novel needs it. In fact, the more conflict, the better. In the query letter, you want to highlight the main conflict, not every single one in every single chapter.

Writing the Query Letter Part 4 - The Consequence by Elana Johnson 
In the queries I've read, the consequence is what's lacking the most. The consequence. You've hooked me, set me up, explained the conflict that's keeping me from getting what I want, but…what will happen if I don't solve the conflict? That's the consequence.

Writing the Query Letter Part 5 - Everything Else by Elana Johnson
This part of the series tackles the title and word count, marketing and comparisons, and the bio.

Even if you've followed this series on the QueryTracker.net Blog , you'll want to check out the two links below:

At the bottom of each of Elana's articles is a link to a bonus -- a set of worksheets to help you write your own query letter!

Also be sure to check out Michelle McLean's take on how to write a hook: How To Write A Hook Line Or Logline.
Your hook line, like a logline, takes a story full of complex plotlines and high-concept ideas and breaks it down into a simple sentence that can be quickly and easily conveyed to a wide range of people. Your hook line is your first pitch in getting someone interested in your book. It can be used as the first line in your query letter, to help hook the agent into reading the rest of the letter and requesting information. And it is especially useful for those pitch sessions at conferences or lunches. When a prospective agent or editor asks you what your book is about, your hook line is your answer. Because it is a simple line or two, it is also handy for those family dinner parties when Grandma asks what your book is about.

Also don't miss The Writer's Guide to Research, also by Michelle McLean
As a writer who focuses mainly on historical settings, research is an important part of my writing process. In this article, learn how to research anything online!

Finally, I trimmed my blog post on Angst, Mental Illness, and Creativity into an article by the same name (link goes to the article).

Archetype Site Updates


Visual Prompts area has been updated.

Resources Reorganization

I divided the Writing & Editing into 2 new sections:

1. Writing Essentials (which includes information on Characterization and Genres)
2. Editing & Feedback

The Agents & Publishing area stayed the same.

The Real Psychology area, which used to be a mirror of (you guessed it) the site's Real Psychology section, has been updated and renamed Using Real Psychology.  You will now find articles in that area as well.

The Downloads area stayed the same.

The Research and Oddities section now has a wonderful article called The Writer's Guide to Research.  Keep an eye on this area, because author Michelle McLean is a researching expert (she has a Bachelor's degree in History and a Master's degree in English!), and I suspect we'll be seeing more articles on research from her.

The final two areas, Writing Links and Psych Links, stayed the same.

Carrie’s Analysis of Urban Fantasy Part I: The Formula by Carrie Vaughn

Carrie’s Analysis of Urban Fantasy Part II: When Things Go Wrong by Carrie Vaughn

Carrie’s Analysis of Urban Fantasy Part III: Deconstructing Urban Fantasy by Carrie Vaughn

For this go round with the (blog) chain gang, Abi  asked

Surely with all my raving about how great QueryTracker.net is, you've at least gone to see what all the fuss is about?  (If you haven't and have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a quick explanation I wrote up.)

If you've signed up for the free version to try it out -- or even if you haven't yet -- you might be eyeing the premium membership to decide if it's really as great as we all say it is.  (It is!)  Well, now's your chance to get a full year's premium subscription for free!  There will be weekly winners for as long as the contest runs.

1. The QueryTracker.net Blog (where yours truly is part of the blogging team) is featuring a Link Lottery contest.  Joining in the fun is easy.
2. For every new QueryTracker.net link you add to the internet, you get one chance to win.
3. After you've added the new link/s, you send an email to links@QueryTracker.net to let the site webmaster know where to find them.  Enter as many times as you like.
4. Every Friday, the webmaster will perform a Google search for QueryTracker links and select one of the results at random. The person who created the selected link will receive a year's premium subscription to QT.

If you're not sure how to create a link, visit the contest announcement over on the QT Blog.

Query Letter Critiques

• Want to see an agent critique query letters? (You can learn a lot that way!) Read QueryShark regularly.
• Want someone to critique your query letter?  Want to practice critiquing others' query letters (because you can learn a lot that way, too)?  First, try the Query Review forum at QueryTracker.net Forum.  Then, once you've got it polished, consider sending your letter to QueryShark herself (who is actually Janet Reid at FinePrint, one of my favorite blogging agents).

Questions about Submissions

• Editorial Anonymous and The Rejecter answer questions about submissions and the biz.

Contests

• On Monday, January 12th, Miss Snark's First Victim will be open for submissions to the latest Secret Agent -- Are you Hooked? contest.  Submissions are only open for 24 hours or until Authoress has received 50 entries, so plan ahead!  The contest is only open to people who have completed manuscripts, and this time the contest is for authors of children's literature.  More information via the link above.

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You can subscribe to Savage Chickens via email or your favorite RSS/XML reader from the Savage Chickens homepage at  http://www.savagechickens.com/.  (The subscribe links are in the center column; scroll down if you don't see them.)

Just a quick technical note. If you subscribed to the QT Blog via email and are getting THIS feed instead, please re-subscribe to the QT Blog at http://querytracker.blogspot.com/. The email link on the QT Blog site was pointing here. I double-checked the code and tested it, and it now works properly. Sorry for any inconvenience!

I'm going to try to blog a little more often here, and today I just want to give you a heads-up on some contests you might be interested in joining!

• Dec. 15 - Jan. 15: Firebrand Query Holiday.  Rather than queries, the Firebrand literary agency is soliciting first chapters for one month. Want to submit?  Check out Firebrand's website. If you Twitter, one of the agents, Nadia Cornier, is posting updates on how many submissions they've received, read, and requested.
• Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Search for an unpublished novelist who deserves to be launched into a career. Novel submissions happen February 2 - February 8.  Be sure to check out the FAQ!
• If you haven't discovered Miss Snark's First Victim yet, it's about time.  Authoress posts frequent contests, including ones in which a secret agent critiques the first few paragraphs of  your novel.  She will be running one of these Secret Agent: Are You Hooked? contests in January, along with a First Chapter Crit Fest. More details when she posts them!

Everyone have a safe and happy New Year's!

I've added a Subscribe via Email link to the blog.  Sorry that took so long, I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't realize how popular it was to read blogs that way.

I also want to let you know about another writing site I'm now a part of: The QueryTracker.net Blog.

If by some chance you haven't visited QueryTracker.net yet, what are you waiting for?  It's the site for finding literary agents and tracking submissions to them.  I used it to find my agent.  I also blogged about it when I first found it, and I love it more now than I did when I found it.  It's free, though you can buy a premium subscription for extra features.  (I don't get a kickback if you start using QT, it's just that awesome.)

Along with four other fun, wacky women and the master sitebuilder himself, Patrick McDonald, I'll be blogging several times a week on hot topics like important industry news (including agent contests and announcements), hot writing and publishing tips, a soon-to-be announced QT Blog contest, and ways to use QueryTracker.net, QueryTracker Forum, and RallyStorm to help you become a better writer, find an agent, and get published!

What with the holidays being so busy, this go-round the blog chain is doing a "Jingle Bell Chain" in which everyone just posts on the topic of their choice.  Mary did a beautiful job talking about what a great boon online writing friends can be that I've been stymied on what to post.

Tonight, it came to me.  You know that sometimes I post "timewasters" because...well, just because I end up doing silly timewasting things online when I should be writing.  So in the spirit of the holidays, here are some holiday funnies from my favorite timewasting websites.

icanhascheezburger.com is probably my all-time favorite timewaster.  It's filled with user-captioned photographs of funny cats (though there is a sister site for "hot dogs".).  Part of what makes it so funny is that the pictures are captioned in LOLspeak, which is like a combination of Engrish and baby talk.

Last but not least, I'd like to offer something I found a while back that always makes me smile.  I like speculative sf/f, but sometimes it's tough to explain the subgenres to people who aren't into that particular genre.  I thought this was a great explanation for steampunk.


We're posting out of order this time, so be sure to check out the posts of everyone on the chain.  Part of mixing it up was linking to different people, so in addition to Mary (above), be sure to check out the person who comes after me, Heather.

Finally, I've had a little time to update the Archetype site with some great new articles!  Happy Holidays, everyone!

7 Personality Characteristics You Need to Get Published by Carolyn Kaufman, Elana Johnson, and Suzette Saxton
Agents and editors deal with hundreds of queries, synopses, proposals, and chapters every month. Whether you realize it or not, your approach to the process has a lot to do with whether or not your work will ever reach publication. Here are the 7 characteristics necessary to achieving your dreams!
 
The Reluctant Writer by Pamela White
Since the age of 9, I've been a writer. I loved telling a story, dreaming up new ideas, places and people, and rereading what I had written. I just never wanted anyone else to read it...

Rejection - Is Your Book Really THAT Bad? by Aaron Lazar
Rejection tears at the thin fabric in which we cocoon with our fragile writer's ego, protecting the inner belief that our work is valid.

Pitfalls of the Aspiring Author - Common Mistakes You Must Avoid by Umm Junayd
As a publisher, I have received numerous queries and manuscripts from writers seeking publication, but there are some things that aspiring authors always seem to get wrong...

Creating Believable Villains Who Are Worthy to Fight Your Protagonists by Vicki Hinze
You must make your villains credible, logical, believable and understandable, but not likeable. You want your villains to be real, three-dimensional people. You want the reader to understand what they're doing, why they're doing it, why they believe their actions are just and rational but you don't want the reader to become so empathetic with the villain that he/she loses empathy with the hero/heroine and starts cheering for the villain.

Essence of Character - Seven Steps to Creating Characters that Write Themselves by Corey Blake
Creating characters that are believable takes time and discipline. Creating dynamically real individuals and not imposing your own thoughts and impressions upon them is not easy to do, and is often the difference between a novel or screenplay that sits in a closet and one that finds its way around town and into the hands of audiences.

Sharpen Your Writing - Choosing Strong Verbs by Charlotte Rains Dixon
Have you ever read a novel and been impressed with the originality of the author's use of verbs? One of the hallmarks of good fiction is the use of strong, original verbs. Yet how does one go about finding these verbs when our daily lives are most often assaulted with weak variations of "to be" from every angle?

Fiction Writing: Getting Your Events In Order! by Steve Dempster
Many writers make mistakes when they describe two things happening simultaneously...

Short Story Writing -- Don't Waste Your Words On Wasted Words! by Steve Dempster
The short story market often demands tight word counts from the writer. Here are some tips on how to keep that word count under control!

Top 7 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Manuscript by Lucia Zimmmitti
I'll bet you've grown weary of writing coaches telling you how to fix your work-in-progress. Ready to break the monotony? Here are some guaranteed ways to ruin a perfectly good manuscript!

Writing Skills - Become a Collector by Charlotte Rains Dixon
The best writers are collectors. They gather ideas and snippets of this and that as they go through their daily life.

Writing Rituals and Routines by Pamela White
When I was offered my first ongoing writing position, I never thought about having a schedule for my writing time, unless procrastinating until the last minute was a plan...

Improve Your Writing Habits Now by Melinda Copp
Writers sometimes develop poor habits, and end up doing more thinking about writing than actual writing. I know, because although I write for a living, and I still don't always spend enough time on the writing that I most want to do.

Strengthen Your Writing With Three Self-Editing Tips by Melinda Copp
When you want to ensure your written communications are professional and clear, knowing these three self-editing tricks can enhance your prose.