Janice Hardy There’s something satisfying about finishing a first draft. The novel that’s been poking you in the brain for months is finally done and you can stand back and marvel at it like a new parent. And like a new baby, there’s an awful lot of mess to go with all that joy. Protagonists […]

photo credit: cellar_door_films via photopin cc I don’t write a scene until I know why I’m writing it, what happens, and how it’s advancing the plot, or the characters. Not because I’m so exacting, but because I hate edits with the zeal of an over-caffeinated Mary Kay rep. No, really. I aspire to the Linda […]

Gwen Hernandez A few years ago, I ended a 15-year marriage to Microsoft Word and hooked up with a younger, sexier writing program: Scrivener. My graduate thesis took the shine off my romance with Word, but it was my foray into fiction that finally killed the relationship. That’s because Scrivener understands my needs in a […]

By Kristen Lamb For those of you who have submitted before, ever wonder how an agent can ask for the first 20 pages and still reject your book? Did you ever wonder if the agents really read these pages? How can they know our book isn't something they want to represent with so little to […]

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy If you Google “book doctor” you’ll get pages of folks willing to analyze your book and tell you what’s wrong with it. While this might be a helpful option for some, not everyone can afford to pay for this type of advice. But never fear, because with a little objectivity (and […]