Reading: Osmosis Education
Love of story isn’t the only reason successful writers are readers. Reading is one of the best writing teachers because it teaches us without us even noticing.
Love of story isn’t the only reason successful writers are readers. Reading is one of the best writing teachers because it teaches us without us even noticing.
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Whenever you get a chance to watch a really good magician, it’s easy to get caught up in the wonder of what they’re doing. But if you’re an adult, and driven by…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Writing is an interesting sort of thing. You can spend years and years doing it, even getting published and paid, and there will still be a multitude of writing and publishing areas…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Some writers love outlines. They outline everything they write and feel it gives the story order and direction. Some hate outlines and feel that an outline makes a story rigid and lifeless.…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Generally the things we put into our work have strong writer reasons for being there. The main character has a sidekick to give him someone to talk to so the scenes have…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > One of the major problems editors encounter when reading picture book submissions is the lack of plot, or even purposeful organization. Many picture books basically start with the character waking up, then…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > As most writers know, it’s much easier to find the flaws in someone else’s work than to find the flaws in your own. Part of the reason for this is distance. When…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > One of the most valuable tools in any writer’s toolbox is the ability to evaluate sources. What is a trustworthy source? How do I know? Should I always avoid Internet sources? Is…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Many fiction writers shy away from nonfiction. They are afraid it takes skills they don’t have, or that they’ll be bored in writing it. But good fiction writers already have the skills…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Nonfiction does many things for readers. Sometimes it tells them a story. Sometimes it informs. But sometimes the whole point of the nonfiction piece is to help and encourage the reader to…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Many writers view nonfiction as less: less creative than fiction, less fun than fiction, less interesting to kids than fiction, and definitely something they want to do less often. Some will accept…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Whenever they talk about the most important things in a manuscript, two requests are almost sure to pop up from editors and agents: voice and great characters. Now voice is a conversation…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Writing a compelling character is often about extremes. The best characters are believable but pressured. The whole point of a plot, in fact, is to apply pressure to a character to make…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Some of us struggle with finding names for characters. As I write (on average) 6 to 10 books a year, I have to come up with a lot of names. And if…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > As important as solid writing and well-crafted plot is to a successful book (and they’re really important), there is something that could arguably be considered even more important: characters. Your characters are the life…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Character creation can be approached in many different ways, but overall, most great characters come about as a mixture. Like a particularly tasty casserole, a writer grabs a pinch of this and…
How do you make a story stand out among other writing contest entries beyond simply writing a strong engaging piece? Here are three judge-grabbing suggestions.
A writing contest doesn’t seem to be part of that straight line of publication. So why would you enter one? Well, here are seven lucky reasons.
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Judging a contest is an interesting activity because it happens in layers. The first layer is simply removing from consideration all the entries that are not appropriate at all (prose memoirs sent…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > It’s hard to develop a story when you can’t get started. Though there are many ways into story creation, one that isn’t considered as often is the title. Titles are often tacked…