by Lisa Hall-Wilson Shame is one of the most powerful and underused emotions in a fiction-writer’s toolbox. Shame is pervasive and common, it’s ugly and hard to capture well. Readers cheer for characters who are relate-able. They cheer for characters who stand up to bullies, who stay and fight when they don’t have to. They […]

By Margie Lawson I’ve read the same wording about tears in too many books.  Tears stream and streak, glint and glisten, flee and flow, prickle and trickle.  They slip, slide, run, roll, seemingly unstoppable. Tears blur vision, soak hair, get wiped, get blinked.  But some tears are unshed, unspent, unspilled, or unspecified. Sobs can choke and […]

SEO for authors... It's a catchphrase that makes all my writing pals shudder. As one of our gals at WITS said, "I know how to spell it, but that's about all." SEO doesn't have to be hard. In fact, some of the best techniques are the easiest for writers, because they involve writing. What is SEO? […]

It’s here. The fourth anniversary of Write Up a Storm. We’re writing up a storm from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00p.m. EDT. If you missed the tips, you can read them here on our Facebook page. Seventeen hours of opportunities to connect with others, meet goals, and get your words “on paper.” We’ll be writing from the top of every hour […]

Julie Glover I recently passed my 10-year anniversary of Writing In Earnest. I began the novel that became my first full manuscript after I evacuated to my in-laws’ house to escape Hurricane Ike, which hit the Texas Gulf Coast in September 2008. When I returned home, I committed to writing one full hour each day, […]