To write honestly and compassionately about members of your family, you must first reflect on your purpose, your approach, the details of your story and the potential reactions your family members might have. Here's how to do that.

There are many elements writers need to pay close attention to when creating a fictional world. There’s setting, plot, pacing, voice, imagery and so on. Everything is important, everything counts. That said, one of my favorite places to focus my writing attention is on my characters. How do your create a good character? Well,...

BY JESSICA STRAWSER Can you imagine 30 days from now holding your finished first draft in your hands? It's possible. Here are 30 tips, resources and strategies for writing a book in a month.

BY ELIZABETH SIMS When your plot starts lagging behind your word count, try one of these simple suggestions for picking up steam.

Writers often have a tough time staying on our diet—you know, the one where our goal is to burn as many words as possible onto the page each day. That's why we're here to help.

BY ANNE R. ALLEN Bite-sized fiction has moved mainstream, and today’s readers are more eager than ever to “read short.” Here’s why writing little stories is paying off in a big way.

Over the past year I posted articles on this blog that covered everything—from grammar to writing better characters to getting published and more. Here’s a cheat sheet linking to what I consider the 50 best articles that can help you reach your writing goals. My goal is to help you move your writing career...

BY LORIE ANN GROVER Writing fiction springing from an actual event requires a finesse for your reader’s benefit, your friends’, your enemies, and yourself.

One of the biggest bugaboos in manuscript submissions is when the author doesn’t properly introduce the protagonist within the first chapter. Here's how to help readers meet your main character.

In explaining why he wrote his novels, the great writer Joseph Conrad once told his readers that it was so they could “glimpse the truth for which you have forgotten to ask.” These words no doubt resonate with many writers, but especially with those of us who choose faraway places and times for our...

BY BRENDA JANOWITZ You simply cannot write a good novel without knowing your characters inside and out. Here are the top 10 questions you need to be able to answer about each of your characters:

As the middleclass lives out the tale spun by Stephen King’s Thinner, we might find ourselves picking up a dystopian novel to relive our despondent youths. In other words, if you feel angry about the current political milieu, then you just might be a dystopian author.

The lives and lifestyles of legendary writers can teach us all some crucial lessons about platform and self-branding today.

There are four primary approaches for beginning a successful novel. Probably more, including some highly experimental ones, but these are the classic main four. Run your story idea through the filter of each of these and see if one of them feels right for your book.

For several years I labored in the agent fields, trying to harvest one for my book on helping doctoral candidates finish their dissertations. My approach, I was sure, was new, based on my longtime practice of coaching doctoral students and editing their dissertation drafts.

Don’t be boring. That’s it. The shortest article you’ll ever read on how to write for television. Okay, so maybe there’s a little more to it. You want to write a TV show? Here's what you need to know.