Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > “Everything is in the tone.”—Sherwood Anderson For a well-polished manuscript, make sure you use tone and mood effectively. Tone in fiction refers to an author’s attitude toward the characters and events in the story. The tone helps to…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > “Hearing” your manuscript with a reader’s ear As you polish your manuscript, you will likely review it numerous times, looking for ways to improve the content, style, and presentation. Some experts suggest reading a hard copy in addition…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > What to do (and not do) in your characters’ conversations As a final check through your dialogue, a good idea is to give a scene to two friends and have them read a different character as if they…
Dialogue is a great way to get readers to care about your characters and eager to find out what happens next. Here are 4 tips for snappy dialogue.
Properly punctuating dialogue trips up even the most seasoned of writers. Bookmark this post to help you as you proofread your manuscript for submission.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > How to win when your goals are under attack Goals are like your characters. They aren’t real until you write them down and bring them to life. Until then, they’re just dreams and aspirations. In a story or…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > I have a confession to make: my name is Chaunie and I’m a write-aholic. I have always been a woman who enjoys working and independence, but when I first stumbled upon freelance writing as a career, I felt…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Do you know what it is? Words don’t spring from your mind onto the page or the computer monitor. At least not yet, though I’m sure some tech genius somewhere is working on that. In the meantime, you…
Discover a practical guide to writing goals by paying attention to your rhythm and stamina as a writer and the constraints your life places on your writing.
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Think about your goals before writing them down. Goals keep you focused. Pin them up where you can see them when you sit down to write. Draw a target on a sheet of paper and write your goals…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > You can learn from failure—if you pay attention Did you achieve the goals you set? Did you exceed them? Miss by a hair or fall woefully short? Would you like to talk about something else? I would, because…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Things to do while you’re out on submission You’ve just hit send. Your query is off to your dream agent. There are only so many times you can hit the refresh button to your email before becoming dejected.…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Advice to take your entry to the top. Have you heard the exciting news? The Institute for Writers is now accepting submissions for its Mystery First Pages Writing Contest! Every quarter, IFW hosts a contest, and this time…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > 10 reasons manuscripts are automatically rejected Before the internet, if you didn’t have a way to contact an agent, you had to mail your manuscript to their office. If the agent had not requested your manuscript, it would…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > How to avoid an automatic rejection You’ve worked so hard to put together a submission package to an agent. You don’t want to waste all that effort only to get an automatic rejection. The best way to avoid…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > What sources matter most? Today, we’re wrapping Research Month on the IFW blog. What good is all that research without a good bibliography? This article comes from our book SEARCHING: A RESEARCH GUIDE FOR WRITER. For more practical…
Paula Morrow reveals even more ways to make sure your research is working for you and not against you when you submit to editors. Read on for her insider tips.
Famed editor Paula Morrow brings us Research Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them because research is essential whether you write fiction or nonfiction. Expert tips ahead!
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In last week’s post, Steps on the Research Road Part 1, Joan Broerman and Marie-Therese Miller shared tips for using books, online searches, and databases to research topics for our fiction and nonfiction stories. This article is just…
Quality research is vital whether you focus on books, articles, short stories, or novels. Enjoy these research tips from Joan Broerman and Marie-Therese Miller.
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