Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In last week’s post, I gave you two clues. With only one accredited class in genre writing under my belt, and a dozen creative writing classes that came nowhere near 221b Baker Street, how did I write five…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Every story ever written contains some element of mystery. We’ll talk about that and a lot of other things over this four-week series. In a mystery novel—a whodunit, a police procedural, a cozy—the mystery is the story. Who…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > If you decide to write a holiday-themed romance, the first thing you need to do is decide if you want to self-publish it or if you want to go the traditional route. Traditional publishers (the big five: Penguin/Random…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The key element that makes a novel a romance is the ending. How to conclude your book so it’s satisfying to the genre readers who have set expectations? By ending with the happily ever after (HEA) or the…
When writing a romance novel, how do you should you handle sex scenes? Tips for writing open and closed-door sex scenes from Jamie K. Schmidt.
Avid romance novel readers have made the romance genre a billion-dollar industry, but romance has come a long way in the 21st century. Read our primer here!
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The covenant is the pact writers make with readers, the promise to deliver a riveting story with unforgettable characters and an ingeniously clever plot. The author also promises to tell the story in a smooth, logical, and easy…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Some paranormal enthusiasts believe that a pyramid, simply by virtue of its shape, can preserve food, and enhance meditation and psychic talents. Others believe the Giza pyramids are a giant celestial generator that could power the world if…
Writing structure is the way the article or story is organized, the way the author puts the pieces together. Readers usually don’t notice writing structure. As a writer, that’s the way you want to keep it.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > “Wit ought to be a glorious treat, like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.” — Noel Coward, English actor, playwright and composer Bringing humor into your writing is more than inserting a series of jokes. Here are…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > I know. There are days we want to throw our television or computer or phone out the window. Days where getting dressed up is putting on a clean pair of sweatpants. Where breakfast can just as easily be…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > You’ve been on a roll with your project—the funny bits are amusing you to no end and your first reader thinks you’re hilarious. You’re a comedic genius. Nothing can go wrong now—not when things are flowing like this.…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Get together with family and old friends and there usually comes a time when someone will tell a tale about a shared experience. The anticipation builds until the crowd is in hysterics—often before the story is even finished.…
In part 3 of our Worldbuilding series, discover 9 mistakes to avoid as you build and populate the world of your novel. Don’t miss these valuable tips!
Welcome to part 2 of our Worldbuilding series where dig even deeper into your new world and what it should include and what you can leave out.
Worldbuilding is usually associated with speculative fiction writers, but even historical, memoir, and romance authors must create a world for their characters.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > My hands are cracking from washing them so often these days. Yours too? How about, in addition to tending to your hands with soap and water, writing a poem to and for and about them, those prehensile and…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The architect Suchi Reddy said, “We build our lives from our bodies. Then we build the next layer and the next layer—our home, our towns, our cities, our villages, our world.” Do you see your body that way,…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > List poems have an off-hand quality, as though they’re not even poems but casual jottings like a grocery or birthday list. That makes them particularly accessible and welcoming for readers to enter, and their unassuming quality keeps them…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > It’s National Poetry Month, and with the chaos of coronavirus that’s unsettled us and our need to stay as close to home as possible, now, more than ever, is the perfect time to delve into poetry for the…