Category: Fiction
Create a Dramatic Start to your Short Story
Do you struggle to keep within any designated word count? Keep your story right on track by creating an effective and gripping opening paragraph that starts at a crucial point in the story…..
Creating Mood
This article will tell you everything you need to know about creating mood. There is also a short teaser to help illustrate how mood influences the story you are writing.
Flexing Novel-Writing Muscles
I was reading an article in our local small town newspaper recently about a high school student who was making significant wins in swimming competition. The article explained that this young lady swims two hours every day at her high school pool. Then a couple days a week, she travels twenty miles to where her coach is located for more intense, concentrated training. It’s obvious this young student’s mind and her body are toned and honed for swimming. She probably dreams about swimming. As novelists, we too should be constantly looking for ways to flex and tone our writing muscles. This might include our powers of concentration, our skills for keen observation, our wild flights of imagination, and so on.
Who Killed September Falls Book Trailer
Check out the trailer for Who Killed September Falls by editor/author Annette Young.
Creative Writing – How To Use The Power Of Your Imagination
Running out of imagination? Wondering how to get more more ideas? How to increase the power of your imagination to generate ideas and write better stories.creative writing,story,imagination,creative writing tips,writing help,becoming a writer,writer
Three Cover Design Secrets for Drawing in Readers
Great book covers compel readers to grab and buy the book. This feat is a veritable art form in itself. Often, either authors take this matter for granted and spend little effort to ensure it looks artfully compelling, or worse, they take matters into their own hands and do the artwork themselves. This would be okay if they really know what they are doing. Often, the DIY approach proves devastating to first-time authors without enough book cover art experience.
How to Write a Psychological Thriller
There are many different types of thriller stories ranging from action adventure, mystery, crime, courtroom, and even paranormal. But there is one genre of this type that is different from the rest because it focuses more on the emotional aspects of the story, rather than the action. And that type of story is the psychological thriller.
It’s All in the Title and the Blurb!
The article explains the importance of selecting a title and providing a supporting blurb, which will entice potential readers to purchase a book. The title and blurb are the book’s equivalent to an advertisement, showcasing the product.
Are Short Stories Becoming Popular Again?
With the rise of digital publishing, it seems that the humble short story is indeed becoming popular again with readers. Short stories lend themselves to e-readers well, since most people use their Kindles and Nooks while travelling to and from work, relaxing in a coffee shop in their lunch breaks, or snuggling into their pillow just before bed. All of these times are limited to how long the reader has, so being able to finish a story before switching off the lights has great appeal.
Not All Reviews Are Equal
So, it goes like this: You finish your novel (or short story or poem – substitute your own medium here), and decide to put it ‘out there’ for feedback. Maybe you post some chapters on your blog, maybe you submit to a peer review website, maybe you’re really brave and you send it out to an agent, or even pay for a professional critique.
Suggestions For Writing the End of a Novel
By Sheila C Skillman
So important is the end, that it can spoil an otherwise excellent novel. As a regular Amazon reviewer, I have read novels thinking, This is superb. I’m going to give this novel 5 stars. And then I’ve reached the end, and my potential review slips a star.
Daydream Believer
Daydreaming can count as writing. This is the journey of one author as she accepts daydreaming as a healthy exercise that feeds her writing success.
Female Heroines: Is Kick-Ass Compatible With Kleenex?
For a long time guys got all the glory in fantasy, action, and adventure books, but recently female characters (and writers) have been fighting their way to the forefront of these genres. This is a terrific trend-so long as we’re not doing it by simply slapping heels on our heroes, renaming them heroines, and calling it a day.
Why Book Editors Reject Fiction Proposals
As strange as it may seem, even good book writing gets rejected sometimes. Learn the many personal and professional considerations that can impact the book buying decisions that are made by editors and publishers.
How to Find Places to Publish Your Short Fiction
Not everybody aspires to write the great American novel. In fact, many writers are content to thoughtful and engaging short stories, whether for broad consumption or simply as a means of channeling creative energy into the written word. Writing short stories may not make you a millionaire, but you have the opportunity to gain a loyal readership and perhaps find greater glory in another medium. When you consider that a short story about cowboys by Annie Proulx, published originally in The New Yorker, was adapted into an Oscar-winning film, you’ll find the possibilities of interpreting your story are many. So, too, are opportunities for getting them read.
Pseudonyms: 10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Pen Name
Pseudonyms abound in writing circles. What doesn’t abound is clear and insightful advice on how to choose the best pen name for a long-term career in novel writing.
Let’s have some fun. Check out the names of these genre fiction authors: Robin Hobb, Stephen King, Jack Higgins, Rebecca Brandewyne, Issac Asimov, Barbara Michaels, Alistair MacLean, Eboni Snoe…
Studying Your Favorite Author Can Help You Write Your Book
One thing that is extremely helpful to authors as they are writing their book is market research. You may have heard this term used as it relates to consumer research for marketing services and products, but it is also a very relevant practice for writers, too!
Fiction Writing – How To Keep Readers Turning Pages
You’ve arranged your writing area, you go there every day and churn out x number of words on the story you have set out to tell. Kudos. But along with writing your dream, there are techniques that make a story sizzle and lack of those techniques that make it fall flat.
Rejection Letters – Learn From Your Mistakes and Become a Better Writer
As a writer, it is almost a given that your dream is for someone to notice your talents, realise your natural flair for words, and agree that your work is worthy of gracing the shelves of bookstores worldwide. Before you achieve that dream however, you have to let publishers know you’re out there. And that means writing letters, which in turn, if you’re lucky, means receiving replies to those letters. And more often than not those replies will be rejection letters.
The Book Sales Process: An Overlooked and Important Consideration for Your Book
When authors call me to inquire about publishing or marketing services for their books, they are often stumped by one of my questions. When I ask about the sales process for the book, the phone line goes silent. It is understandable.
Publish an E-Book on Amazon – The Rise of The Author
Amazon’s Kindle has leveled the playing field for all authors. No one but you will stand between you and your dream of being a published author. Maybe it’s time to take that old novel out of the drawer where you’ve kept it hiding, dust it off, clean it up and submit it for publishing on Amazon. Only you can stand in the way of your dreams in this day and age.
Having a Successful Book Signing
Finally, after an excruciatingly long wait, your book is released to the public. You’re still basking in the glow of being an author and suddenly, along comes an invitation to the first of many book signings at a bookstore. Now what?
Shaping A Book
I often say that books are more than the sum of their words. A real book is an entire entity-plot, organization, characterization, style, including all of the subheads for each one. Circling all of these things is the entire forest-the shape of the book.
3 Low Cost Ways to Meet Agents & Editors
These days it’s common knowledge that it’s hard to meet an agent or an editor through an unsolicited mailing. They are more likely to pay attention to a submission coming from someone they have met in person.
Learning From Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway said, “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit-detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.” By this Hemingway signalled the vital importance of honesty and truth in creative writing – and these two are not easily found, least of all by the writer himself in the very act of writing.
6 Steps to Tackling a New Learning Goal
As writers, we have to keep learning. It is fundamental to what we do for a living. Sometimes, we stumble onto something new and learn it on the fly. At other times, we choose a topic and settle down to learn it. In other words, we set a learning goal. The task may seem overwhelming at first, but like most things writers do, the process can be broken down into a manageable system. This one has six steps.
The Best Social Media
It’s time for a serious discussion about online presence. What’s the best social media to get the word out about your books? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Google Plus+… Come on, don’t be shy. Which do you choose and why?
Write a Book Starting Today: It’s Easier Than You Think
Many people want to write a book. Indeed, a survey found that ten per cent of the population want to do it. Few people accomplish it, but you can.
Evolution Of A Fantasy Name
Names are everywhere in a fantasy story and names are, ultimately an important part of the story. Unless you are writing some sort of comedic fantasy it is hard to take a take a sorcerer named Tim seriously. Which is why just such a name for just such a character is used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Tips For Attractive Book Covers
Nothing is more important than an effective book cover to sell a book. The front cover must stand out to get people’s attention within a second or the sale may be lost. Here are a few key points to make sure your cover has what it takes to sell your book.
