Margie Lawson Writers know the cautions about backstory. I’d bet every basic how-to book for writers warns against overwhelming readers with too much backstory. Backstory usually kills pacing. Backstory usually kills momentum. Backstory usually kills your chances with an agent or editor. What is backstory? It’s story history that the writer needs to know to […]

Alex Bledsoe World building is a common concern among fantasy writers, since so much of what we do depends on the reader believing IN the setting. You can have the best story and great characters, and torpedo them all with an unconvincing and inconsistent setting. Of course, you can also go too far in the […]

Brandi Megan Granett In 1999, several factors conspired that caused me to walk away from writing for a very long time: my first novel was accepted for publication, my darling daughter was born, and the publishing industry imploded.  Combining the demands of new motherhood with diminishing ability to sell books and zero support from my […]

Susan Spann In the publishing world, an "elevator pitch" is a one-sentence (under one minute) pitch an author gives an agent, editor, or reader in order to prompt interest in a manuscript or book. I've heard a lot of these over the years, and I help authors write (or revise) them in conference settings. In fact, […]

I love fortune cookies. From cracking them open, to pulling out the slip of paper, to reading the fortune, to eating the sweet crunchy thing—I love everything about them. I always smile when I find saved fortunes (a recent "found" cache led to this post) whenever I go through an old purse or drawers in my […]