Julie Glover The hardboiled detective, the spoiled princess, the bad boy with a heart of gold, the diamond-in-the-rough heroine—surely, these sound familiar. We’ve read them, and we may have written them. Call them tropes or archetypes, but they’re recognizable characters who can easily fall flat on the page. And flat characters are about as appealing […]

 Colleen M. Story You’ve heard the advice “write every day.” It good advice, especially if you’re serious about having a long-term writing career. But what if you’re doing it—you’re showing up—but you’re not happy with the results? Maybe you’ve suffered some of the symptoms: If you’ve experienced any of these, don’t despair. The solution is […]

Amy Sue Nathan I blame it on a lunch date. Or maybe I should say I owe it to a lunch date. Yes, my entire writing career is predicated on the fact that I met someone for lunch whom I’d never met before. I don’t remember his name, or what he looked like. I never […]

Les Edgerton This week at WITS we are on a roll with the key characters in your story. Monday was 10 Tips for a Strong Protagonist from Shannon Donnelly. Today is a fantastic in-depth post from Les Edgerton. His last article for us was about how character's actions determine both their character and their character […]

Nicole Winters Years ago, I remember listening to writers lament about the perils of research. I thought, how terrible to psych yourself out of a wonderful story before you’ve even begun. Now, before I continue, let’s be clear, what I do is probably more suitable for the contemporary fiction writer. Someone who, say, wants to […]