Jamie Raintree Have you ever heard the phrase “act as if”? I heard it for the first time when I was a teenager from a friend who was into personal growth before I even knew what personal growth was. He used to throw it around haphazardly, like it was the answer to everything, and he […]

Announcing the winners of Laurie Schnebly Campbell's contest: Comment #21 and #35 as chosen by random.org. Congratulations to Alice Fleury and Melissa Racine. You can contact Laurie to arrange your free class. And now, you're in for a real treat, as Kathryn Craft continues her Turning Whine Into Gold series. Kathryn Craft Do you ever […]

Laurie Schnebly Campbell What does braiding a book mean? Off the top of my head, that seems like an easy question. Since a braid has three parts, a braided book has -- hmm. Goal / motivation / conflict. A hero / heroine / villain. Emotions / actions / thoughts. Description / dialogue / narrative. A […]

Why a writing retreat will change your life By Kimberly Brock So, life. Every time I start to get stupid and think I’m going to just do this writing of a novel thing in one long, smooth line, there’s life. It keeps happening to me. This is a fine example of magical thinking on my […]

Kate Moretti We writers spend a lot of time online. Facebook, twitter, forums, groups, message boards, I could go on. We debate. We talk about craft and commas and grammar and agents and publishers and eventually someone will bring up genre and everyone will silently groan because the only conversation that rivals genre is “Plotting […]