By Janice Hardy Theme is an often misunderstood and underused aspect of a novel. Years of English classes have made us think that theme is something reserved for literary novels or stories with deep, meaningful messages, not for commercial fiction and good old fashioned stories. Total bunk. Theme is a highly useful part of any […]

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 […]

Writers In The Storm is delighted to have Janice Hardy back. We love her and the fabulous writing resources on her blog, The Other Side of the Story. *********************** Decades ago, a detached, omniscient point of view was all the rage. Readers wanted to be told a story, so the stories read as if someone […]

Writers In The Storm is delighted to welcome Janice Hardy to our blog. This ex-Writer's Digest instructor knows her stuff - if you're not already following her blog, The Other Side of the Story, you are missing out on an amazing writing resource! She's even agreed to visit with us again next month, so please […]

By Laura Drake "The secret of good writing," says William Zinsser, "is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components." This is one of the first lessons I tried to tackle as a writer. And I needed to. I’ve been known to get a bit carried away with the words, if you know what I […]