You Can Learn How to Write a Book
You can learn how to write a book! Learning how to write a book begins here and your next step is a novel writing course at Institute of Children’s Literature.
Try New Writing Techniques
How often do we, as writers, try new things with our writing? Fall is the time to take advantage of new opportunities to learn new writing techniques.
Your Back-to-School Plan for Writing Success
Writers need a plan to improve and succeed. Apply the following tips and techniques to your writing back-to-school program and be ready for writing success!
7 Ways to Go Back to School for Writers
Although most writers no longer attend school full-time, we can create our own learning experiences. Here are ways to go back to school for writers.
Using POV in Writing to Build Emotion
Using POV in writing gets us deep inside a character’s thoughts and feelings. Jackie Diamond Hyman reveals how to connect with your reader using point of view.
The Role of Pace in Writing Fiction
Turn the page already! IFW Instructor Kris Franklin shares the important role of pace in writing fiction and reveals the traps where pacing can easily get stuck.
Dialogue: Putting Words in Your Character’s Mouth
Dialogue isn’t the only tool fiction writers have, but it’s the best one to reveal character, advance the plot, and inform readers. Find out why!
Detail: Yep, That’s Where the Devil Is
Lynne Smith shares how to use familiar, relatable, and evocative details to convince readers that the people and places in your stories are as real as they are.
Become a Better Writer: Study an Author’s Work
Want to become a better writer? Studying published writers help you see how they hook a reader, create interesting characters, and structure their stories.
A Summer School Project: Work to Improve Your Writing
Summer is the perfect time to improve your writing. Susan Ludwig helps you identify problem writing areas and offers actionable tips to solve those issues.
The Value of Feedback for Writers
Feedback for writers is one of the most important tools needed to get from first draft to polished, submission-ready manuscript.
Series Books: The Trouble with Character Transformation
How do you handle character transformation in series books where readers fall in love with characters and expect to meet those same people, sometimes exactly the same people, book after book?
Series Books: 3 Popular Ways to Orient Your Reader
Each book in a series must somehow orient the reader to what is going on in the series overall and the specific book in hand. Today, we look at three ways to orient your reader.
Trade Publishing: Single Book or Series?
Trade publishing recognizes a simple truth: when selling a series to individual readers, the first book gets the most readers. Jan Fields shares tips for increasing your series odds.
Planning a Book Series: The Premise
All series books have a basic premise, something that links the books through time. Today we talk about how a good premise is interesting but also has repeatability.
Planning a Book Series: Characters Who Can Go the Distance
When planning a book series, it’s important to create characters that can sustain a story and still be likable throughout many books. Let’s talk about characters that can go the distance.
Writing Great Middle Grade Dialogue
Because dialogue is an essential element of any book, it’s worthwhile to take a specific look at writing great middle grade dialogue.
Middle Grade Characters: Beyond Likability
Let’s look at the complex middle grade characters who aren’t really likable, and how they can play a part in grabbing the reader and holding on.
Writing for Middle Grade: An Essential Primer
Middle grade books are seeing an awakening in the publishing world. What you need to know when writing for middle grade.
Contests Are More Than Winning
Those who enter writing contests are optimistic by their very nature but contests are about more than winning.