Becca Puglisi Dialogue—good dialogue—is tricky. Mechanics can be learned; the rules are readily available and are hammered into us by teachers, editors, critique partners, and countless Facebook memes. The hard part of writing good dialogue is nailing the back-and-forth, the natural ebb and flow that turns dialogue into convincing conversation. This is the part that […]

By Janice Hardy I’m working on a new novel, so I’ve been deep in the brainstorming and planning. In an effort to boost my productivity, I did something a little differently this time that could benefit other writers. I’ve added an extra “story clarification” line to my template. It’s a way to remind myself what […]

Penny Sansevieri The Amazon ad system (AMS), new to many authors, is creating quite a buzz in the community.  And though it’s a pretty easy set-up, the heart of the ads – and getting them right, can be tricky. This guide built out of many tests I’ve done with the ad system is pretty comprehensive […]

Jamie Raintree Chances are, if you've spent any amount of time around other writers, you've heard of National Novel Writing Month, an online writing event that attracts hundreds of thousands of writers from all over the world each year. The event takes place in November and each participant pledges to write 50,000 words of new […]

Kathryn Craft Turning Whine Into Gold Our society as a whole, and publishing as a subculture, rewards action and achievement. The Holy Grail seems to be a book a year, and you can’t pull that off while sitting on your hands. Yet I would maintain there are at least four times in your writing career […]