Our guest Terri Osburn, author of Meant to Be,  has a wealth of questions to help you turn flat characters into characters that keep your readers turning pages. by Terri Osburn I've been judging a lot of contest entries lately, which led me to the topic for this blog. After reading the entire entry, I […]

Congratulations to Ella Quinn, the winner of Debbie Herbert's contest last week. Ella, you can contact Debbie via her website. You're lucky to be one of the first to read her debut book, Siren’s Secret! And the winner of Chuck Sambuchino's contest is Judi Moreo. We'll let Chuck know the snail mail address on your […]

“The Tricky Part” of writing is different for every author, but hardly anyone is good at both dialogue & description. Laurie Schnebly Campbell talks about the skills required for each, and how to discover where your strengths lie. And, did we mention that there is a prize for a lucky commenter? That contest closes Thursday […]

by Shannon Donnelly Emotion. It’s what we read for in fiction. We want the thrill, the sorrow, the laughter, and the tears. Unfortunately, words are abstracts. Emotions are visceral—they’re in our bodies. That means the illusion to bring about emotion has to be studied and learned. And it’s the same challenge with every book—how to […]

by Pamela Morsi As a writer without a plan, I don’t get invited to comment often on my writing process. Telling people, “oh, I just make it up as I go along” tends to annoy my colleagues and confuse newcomers. I’m an organic writer. Or at least that what Donald Maass calls it. Pardon the […]