By Kathryn Craft Storytellers know that on the page, internal conflict is a writer’s best friend. But when that conflict emerges from voices inside the writer’s own head, where each wants to weigh in on the writer’s path and her way of walking along it, things can get confusing. Like a GPS whose discordant voices […]

By Laura Drake I’ve read a lot of blogs lately about introverted writers, whining  pointing out how hard it is for them, nowadays. There are probably more introverted authors than extroverts. After all, it’s darned near a cliché - the writer living in seclusion, typing away in obscurity. That’s all you see in movies: As […]

by Tiffany Lawson Inman Going through life, we are always in a state of suspense. Mmmmm…yummy, suspense! According to Oxford dictionary: a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Life moments creating dramatic impact, small and large. What will happen next?  Is the question on […]

By Shannon Donnelly Everyone knows there’s a story arc—story goes up in tension, reaches a peak, and falls down. And there are character arcs, too, since story is character and character is story. But what about your scene arcs? That’s right—every scene needs an arc. Jack M. Bickham (a student of Dwight Swain, whose book […]

by Fae Rowen On the plane home from Atlanta in July, I re-read my notes and handouts, highlighting tips that resonated with me as I prepared for a major edit on my WIP. When I participated in the UC Irvine Writing Project, I learned the technique of highlighting a few word in an article, an […]