I'm ready for more first page submissions! Just copy and paste your first page into the body of an email, and send it to: La********@*************ks.com I can't promise to use yours - I'm choosing them mostly for what lessons they can teach. But please, submit! I thought it would be fun this month to show […]

Kathryn Craft   A developmental edit can feel a lot like sending your child to school for the first time. You’ve had several years to exert your influence on his upbringing and must now allow others into his journey. You may be ready to push the little bugger through the school door! Or you may […]

Laurie Schnebly Campbell You’ve heard of the Myers-Briggs test, right? Maybe even taken it for school or work? Maybe even had one or two or 28 of your characters take it? No worries if you haven’t done any of that -- it’s a pretty simple concept, which goes all the way back to Aristotle. (Actually […]

Margie Lawson Does your real or imaginary writing checklist include: Make Character Descriptions Fresh, Unpredictable, Multi-Powerful? If not, it could. Character descriptions can add power on multiple levels. You can treat the reader to something fresh, something they haven’t read before. You can slip in details that deepen characterization too. Character descriptions provide an opportunity […]

James Preston Once upon a time my wife and were doing our second-favorite thing, sitting up late at night reading. Suddenly she yelled something like ARRGH or UGH and threw the book across the room, where the poor thing bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. The cat wisely jumped up and took […]