Kathryn Craft Turning Whine into Gold My writing gratitude list, today: Wow. I am so full of gratitude this morning it’s hard to stop at three. That was not always the case. Eighteen years ago, after my first husband’s suicide, I made many trips to the bookstore, seeking the advice I needed to patch my […]

I love almost all literary devices, but the three in this post's title are my favorites. I’m sure you heard of them, and have probably used them in your writing, but you may not know the definitions, so here they are: Motif is any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. Through its repetition, […]

Jamie Raintree I started writing my first novel 8 years ago, almost to the day. (I don't know why I'll always remember it was July 12th that I wrote those first fateful words.) I had already been writing for years, mostly short stories and some failed attempts at novels, but there was something about this […]

Dr. Ann Garvin “How did you get a book published?” I get this question from the check-out lady at the Pick ‘N Save’ to the mechanic who is fixing the air conditioning in my car to my dentist (but he always waits until I can’t speak so he can tell me about his book). The […]

Angela Ackerman Ah, backstory. According to many, this is the BIG BAD WORD in fiction. How many times have you heard someone say, “Backstory is bad, strip it from the scene!” or, “Backstory slows the pace, bogs down the action, and will only bore the reader.” Well, if you hang out at the same online […]