by Laura Drake

Compellingly showing thoughts is a topic I don’t see addressed often, but it’s done wrong so much that it’s become a pet peeve of mine. It’s like a cheese grater on the nerves. Once you see the difference between smooth, essential thoughts and "throw away" thoughts, you won’t be able to unsee them.… Read the post

By Laura Drake

Having a hard time sitting in that chair and watching that cursor blinking at you? You are not alone. I’m afraid. Every. Single. Day.

We make excuses, like:

• No time – I have a
  busy life!
• Classes – I don’t know
  enough
• Research – I don’t
  know enough
• Too many plot ideas
• Not enough plot ideas
• No writer space –
  people keep bugging me
• I will.

I’m currently teaching my First Five Pages class at Lawson Writer’s Academy. I love helping writers strengthen their all-important openings. Joe Zarek is one of my students, and has agreed to allow me to share his ‘before and after’ first page.… Read the post

Laura Drake

Description, run-on words, similes and metaphors are all ways to get your meaning across to your reader. I got the first two, but metaphors and similes....they were a bit fuzzy (school was a looooong time ago for me). Until I watched this scene from Renaissance Man, with Danny DeVito (if you've never seen it, you're missing out).… Read the post

Laura

I looked it up. This blog was born in April of 2010, when our critique group sat in Charla Rae’s office and came up with the crazy idea of a blog to help writers improve their craft and not feel so alone, working in solitude.… Read the post