by Lisa Hall-Wilson Shame is one of the most powerful and underused emotions in a fiction-writer’s toolbox. Shame is pervasive and common, it’s ugly and hard to capture well. Readers cheer for characters who are relate-able. They cheer for characters who stand up to bullies, who stay and fight when they don’t have to. They […]

By Margie Lawson I’ve read the same wording about tears in too many books.  Tears stream and streak, glint and glisten, flee and flow, prickle and trickle.  They slip, slide, run, roll, seemingly unstoppable. Tears blur vision, soak hair, get wiped, get blinked.  But some tears are unshed, unspent, unspilled, or unspecified. Sobs can choke and […]

It’s here. The fourth anniversary of Write Up a Storm. We’re writing up a storm from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00p.m. EDT. If you missed the tips, you can read them here on our Facebook page. Seventeen hours of opportunities to connect with others, meet goals, and get your words “on paper.” We’ll be writing from the top of every hour […]

by Becca Puglisi As I’m sure you’ve heard roughly a gajillion times, your story’s first pages are very important. Editors and agents typically request just a portion of your story’s opening, and potential buyers read only a sampling when they’re looking for books to buy. So whichever publishing route you take, those first pages are […]

by James R. Preston  A Conversation About Pushing the Envelope Of First Person “There are some men who enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me—not forever, but periodically.” One for the Money by Janet Evanovich “Got a walk-in client today. Named Fitch. Guess it’s what I get […]