Writing advice and tips.
Oh those pesky dialogue tags. Said. Asked. Replied. Responded. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there on what to use. What’s a writer to do? In the multitude of manuscripts I read, I see writers employ such things as “Sally smiled” or “Gerald laughed.” In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with that….
Last week I posted the submission guidelines to 6 magazines. I do this on a regular basis. Why? Because writing for periodicals is one of the best ways to hone your writing skills. Today’s guest, multi-published author Ava Pennington, has a great deal of expertise in this area and is here today to discuss 6…
While reading a book, have you ever found yourself saying There’s something wrong with that sentence, but I can’t quite figure out what? Do you stop to figure out what’s wrong or just keep reading? I’m guilty of doing both, depending on the circumstances of the moment. Of course, if I’m editing a manuscript, I…
Writers conferences are not only great places to learn, but they are a lot of fun to attend! I enjoy teaching at conferences as much as I enjoy attending them. That’s me in the pic above, teaching at the Called to Write Conference in Pittsburg, Kansas, this past April. At conferences, you’ll learn about writing and…
What book on the craft of writing has been the most helpful to you? I recently asked that question on my Facebook author page, but no one left an answer. So I have to wonder if I’m wasting my time with today’s post. But maybe it was a question that required too much thought. Or…
Do you think best-selling authors like James Patterson, J.K. Rowling, and Jerry Jenkins sit down and produce that best seller with their first draft? For some reason, many people believe this is how it happens. But that’s a myth. “Submitting a novel without rewriting is like playing ice hockey naked.” ~Best selling author James Scott…
Scrivener, Scrivener, Scrivener. You’ve been hearing about it from a lot of writers, including me. In fact, I recently taught a workshop on using Scrivener at the Called to Write conference in Pittsburg, Kansas. You may be wondering what’s so terrific about this software and why you should consider using it. So let’s take a…
Do you dream of getting published? What writer doesn’t? But in their excitement and exuberance of completing a manuscript writers often make these 3 crippling mistakes when submitting their manuscripts to publishers. The No. 1 Mistake They don’t include a book proposal. The book proposal is