By Monthly Contributor, Shannon Donnelly We’ve all heard “show, don’t tell” and there is value in that advice. If all you do is tell a story, how does the reader participate with his or her imagination? However, a book is not a movie. While a movie requires everything to be shown (or an often awkward […]

Writers In The Storm welcomes back Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo for some more plot-fixing magic. Kara is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than sixty novels of romance and romantic suspense for Harlequin and Random House. AND she’s a 2012 DOUBLE RITA Finalist! Problem #4: A lack of clear-cut goals for your characters In […]

Following NYT author, Susan Squires' post about the logic behind herchoice (if you missed it, you can read it here) I thought our in-house attorney's blog is a perfect compliment! By Susan Spann How does an author choose between traditional and independent publishing? How do I know which option is right for me? The “right” […]

By Tiffany Lawson Inman In theatre, dialogue is king. It is the lifeline of the story.  Character's lines bouncing back and forth between each other.  Confiding, conspiring, commiserating, coercing, or caring.  Dialogue works to create emotion, conflict, show character, and it always moves the dramatic action forward. It seems that in fiction writing, dialogue isn’t […]

By Laura Drake This was the conversation at crit group last week... Me: So I was tweeting with Chicken on a Chain last night, and – Jenny: Chicken WHAT? Me: He’s a bull. Retired from the PBR, one of the best. You should’ve seen him at the finals in 2009 -- Jenny: You did not […]