Author Cindy Jones discusses overcoming her biggest revision challenge - the soggy middle. She experienced rejection because the second act of her book just wasn't good enough to bring the reader to the end. It's a great reminder to every writer that...

Some authors persevere by choosing subjects they can learn from. Such was the case for memoir author Anna Manning, who wrote about people she wanted to emulate in "The Leroy Tree." Her subjects had vision and explored ways to reach their destinations...

Some authors persevere by choosing subjects they can learn from. Such was the case for memoir author Anna Manning, who wrote about people she wanted to emulate in "The Leroy Tree." Her subjects had vision and explored ways to reach their destinations...

Novels follow rhythms. Some are slow and sensual. Others are rip-roaring reads. This underlying rhythm within the novel is called pacing. Chapters, scenes, paragraphs, sentences and word choices all affect pacing. These choices determine how fast a book...

Being artistically inclined can be beneficial to a writer. When author and writing teacher Valerie Willis is facing writer's block, she often pulls out drawing tools and doodles to work through the character or scene that's causing the interruption...

To outline or not to outline? That is a very common question amongst new writers, both fiction and nonfiction. The answer largely depends on what type of writer you are - are you a plotter or a pantser ? In other words, are you a planner or are you spontaneous...

Per former Hollywood Development Executive Dan Watanabe, one of the biggest ways writers fall short with their stories is that they don't write the story they are meant to write. Many writers are too worried about what's trending in the book market....

Literary Agent Nicholas Croce shares some thoughts on how authors can manage their time. All of the planning in the world doesn't matter if we never sit down and actually write. As authors, we can have solid marketing plans, distribution plans, and...

Literary Agent Nicholas Croce shares some thoughts on how authors can manage their time. All of the planning in the world doesn't matter if we never sit down and actually write. As authors, we can have solid marketing plans, distribution plans, and...

Scenes are the building blocks of stories. How scenes are structured is very important in keeping the story moving forward and maintaining a reader's interest. Per author and editor Troy Lambert, each scene in a story must have its own narrative arc...