I took one acting class in college. In addition to discovering I didn't want to pursue drama, but simply storytelling, I learned some of the challenges of portraying a character's persona to an audience just beyond the stage. One tidbit was my takeaway that you need something to do with your feet, your hands, your […]

Tiffany Yates Martin How to Dig Deeper for the Buried Treasure in Your Story There is a scene in the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love that wrings my heart out every time I see it. Childhood sweethearts and longtime spouses, played by Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore, are separated after the wife’s infidelity. Carrell’s character can’t stop sneaking […]

Angela Ackerman Put your character up a tree and then throw rocks at him. This iconic advice is something every writer hears at some point and keeping it at the forefront of our minds when writing is one of the wisest things we can do. Not only must we make good on our back-jacket blurb […]

Margie Lawson There’s a lot of commotion about getting emotion on the page, but getting it right is tricky. Most writers do a great job getting in their POV character’s head, telling how they process emotions. Writing thoughts. But most writers aren’t great at sharing their POV character’s physical reactions, showing how they experience emotions […]

Heather Webb I’ve been talking a lot about collaborating on a novel and also in anthologies these days. (I co-wrote my latest book with Hazel Gaynor). I wasn’t prepared for how many people would be fascinated by what it would be like to work on a book with someone else so I thought I’d share […]