Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Cours Catalog > Out of all the style tools we describe in this series on tone and voice, interjecting humor is probably the most difficult to pull off well. One reason is that we all…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Some writers write only one sort of book: picture books, mysteries, science fiction, humor, racy romance, etc. But many writers jump around in their careers and tackle whatever project bubbles up in…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > We’ve talked about “voice” now it is time to meet its twin sister, “tone.” If you are writing for publication, or for a specific publication, no matter what the genre, and you…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > A while ago on the Institute’s Facebook page, someone was asking about dialogue, which made me think again about this important writing tool. Readers love dialogue because it makes a scene and a…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > When I first started writing in earnest I would mimic the authors that I admired. I studied how they put words on the page. I’d try to guess what the work told…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The Secrets to Samples Many of us who write for educational publishers are very familiar with samples. These are the bits of writing publishers use to judge whether you’re a writer who…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Talking about how to end a book or story is a bit harder than talking about how to begin one. The first paragraph of a book doesn’t really count as a spoiler…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > It’s like they created a day just for folks like me, people who are (admittedly or not) obsessed with punctuation… proper punctuation and not-so-proper punctuation. As a professional proofreader and editor, Punctuation…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Momentum is a delicate thing in writing. Sometimes you start out revving along in a novel, falling in love with your main character, fascinated by the situation you’re creating and cranking out…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Author’s Day and Stress Awareness Day Two Celebrations That Go Hand in Hand: Authors Day and Stress Awareness Day If you’re a writer, chances are you know a thing or three about…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Writing can be a lonely art form. Unlike performance artists, you don’t have audience reaction to rev you up. And sometimes family and friends aren’t incredibly supportive, especially during the early years…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > This month we celebrate a hat trick of days of particular note: September 6th is Read A Book Day. September 7th is Buy A Book Day. September 8th is Literacy Day. Mark…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Every story has a beginning. The best beginnings grab our attention and make us eager to read on. The best beginnings give a sense of sort of story we’re going to get…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > A look at 7 recent successful novels where the main protagonists were Middle-Aged In writing courses you’ll hear professors say things like, “It doesn’t matter the age of a character as long…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Genre, according to Google’s dictionary function, is “a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.” When you’re talking about literature, books,…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > For me, being a writer is more than something I do. It’s something I am. A writer is always a writer, whether sitting before a computer or picking up a pen and…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Weaving Pop Culture Into Your Writing Pop culture – Why it’s so important in fiction today and how to weave it into your writing (without dating your work) As a journalist I’m…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Almost any strong plot is basically a story of someone’s struggle against something. That something is the villain of your story. Now sometimes you have a real human villain. If your story…
Waiting for inspiration to strike could take a lifetime. Here are 7 ways to cheat the muse and jumpstart your writing without having to wait around.
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > People often tell me how lucky I am to make a profession from something I enjoy deeply. And I am thrilled that this has been possible for me. I love being a…