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…
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 why to enter contests and how important it is to follow directions and polish your entry before sending it in, but there is another important thing your entry must…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > There are some writers who just don’t see the value in a writing contest. If you’ve written something, why not just submit it to a publisher? Why a contest? This is a…
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…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > For many writers, especially newer writers, revision is mainly a step for fixing typing errors, spelling errors and grammar mistakes. Some may have a checklist of things to look for such as…
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 important questions to consider when developing a story is “what is going to be at stake for my main character?” By this, we mean, “What is the cost…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Good stories have lots of moving parts, and it can be challenging to get all the parts to come together in a way that works. Many writers understand that a good plot…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Many times, the compelling urge to write, to create, to make something that reflects our skills and creativity, brings us to the blank page (or blank computer screen) with the intention of…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > When it comes to writing and submissions, there is such a thing as too soon. In fact, the number one mistake writers make in the area of submitting their work is moving…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Query letters, cover letters, pitches, and proposals all have one very important thing in common. They all require an author be able to describe the story in few words. This is sometimes…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Your first contact with a publisher or agent does a lot of things. It presents the project you’ve created (or wish to create) in a clear, concise, lively manner. That’s hard enough,…