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Why write a novel? Twitter tells us
Why is writing a book a dream for so many people, and so satisfying for others? There are a number of reasons... https://twitter.com/kseniaanske/status/385290609684008960 Writing a novel can be therapeutic: You get to talk about feelings that you might not ordinarily and get everything off your c...
October 7th, 2013
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Writing feedback: How to get helpful critiques
One of the challenges for us all as writers is getting good feedback on our writing, especially early in our career. You can get feedback for free or you can pay for it, and you can get it from peers or from professionals. To get feedback on your writing: Join an online writing group or foru...
September 23rd, 2013
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Writing memoir: Three things to learn from Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott wrote one of the most beloved writing book of all times, Bird by Bird, but she has also had great success as a writer of memoirs. Writing memoir often means writing about family and other real people. Lamott's honesty and self-deprecating humour are instructive to any writer ...
September 17th, 2013
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Silence your inner critic: 8 ways to write in peace
So often beginning writers (and even established authors) tell themselves 'My writing is bad'. If you tend to criticize yourself to a creative standstill too, you're in good company: Even the great authors have suffered from self-doubt. The good news is that there are ways to silence your inner c...
September 3rd, 2013
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Turning notes into a novel
Most writers don’t sit down on day one of novel-writing and begin spinning a tale; generally, they’ve been outlining and making notes for a while. Turning notes into a novel, a publishable manuscript, can seem daunting. Despite this, the tips below will help you develop your notes into a book. Ho...
August 1st, 2013
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Dan Brown: 10 tips for writing bestselling suspense
Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code among other books, is one of the top-selling authors of all time. What can aspiring authors learn from his success? Plagiarism scandals aside, Dan Brown's global publishing success garnered endless publicity. The linguist Geoffrey Pullum called Brown on...
July 31st, 2013
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How to start writing a memoir: 10 secrets
Knowing how to start writing a memoir is important if you want to write autobiographical books that hook readers. From humorists like David Sedaris to more serious memoirists, the best memoir writers know how to treat their personal stories with the creativity of a fiction author. 10 tip...
May 23rd, 2013
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5 classic books every teen should read
Look around for recommendations for books that are perfect for teens and chances are you will come across the same three answers over and over again: the Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and the Twilight series. Chances are you (if you are a teen) or your teen(s) (if you are a parent), just like most ...
May 7th, 2013
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What The Hobbit characters teach us about character development
If J.R.R. Tolkien knows how to do one thing, it's create characters that readers love. Luckily, he also knows how to create wonderful worlds and engaging plot twists, too, but it's the characters who really stick with you after reading one of his books. In the first book in his history of Middl...
April 23rd, 2013
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5 ways using morning pages will help you finish writing a book
'Morning pages' is a concept popularized in Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. Using morning pages is a system Cameron describes as something that will 'provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand'. Here are 5 ways writing morning pages daily wil...
April 22nd, 2013
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Who Chekhov was, and why modern writers should care
Anton Chekhov. The short story writer named by nearly every great Western twentieth century writer as a significant influence, who shaped the modern short story as we know it, was this nineteenth century Russian writer. Writers of every genre should be familiar with the work of Chekhov because o...
April 16th, 2013
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What is purple prose? Definition, examples and how to avoid
What is purple prose? It describes sentences that are too mannered and stylized. The Oxford English Dictionary defines purple prose as 'writing that is too elaborate or ornate'. How can you distinguish between good writing and purple prose? Read tips to avoid purple prose in your o...
April 11th, 2013
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