Jessica Strawser Ever wished you could have a do-over? Join the club. We’re all members—including your characters. Our longing to rewind time can range from the frivolous (I may have once backed my car into something incredibly loud right in front of a guy I had a crush on—and the loud thing may have […]

Lisa Cron Great questions this month – so much to say, so let’s get started! Laura Drake asks: I have a question – I’ve read (no, studied) the first half of Story Genius, and it’s changed the way I write. My weakness is plotting (I don’t). So the second half of the book is lost […]

I thought I was going to make a blob-like paperweight, until Nate, our teacher, showed me a gorgeous straight-sided largish vase. He asked what color I'd like to make the glass, but I was so stunned by the piece he held in his hand, I couldn't answer. "Or you could make it a different shape." […]

Descriptions are some of my favorite things to do. But they're not easy to write well. Descriptions have changed over the years.  Stienbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939. Here's the beginning:  Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Steinbeck fan, but that was before TV, Netflix, apps, and Xbox. Back when readers had […]

Kari Lynn Dell If you’d asked me twenty years ago, the idea that a ranch girl from Montana who majored in sports medicine could up and write a book would’ve seemed ludicrous. Then this story got stuck in my head. The characters—typical of many of the cowboys I’ve dated—settled in on my mental couch, hogging […]