Editing the Bad is Better Than Editing Nothing

As per human nature, we doubt ourselves. I think as writers, we can tend to doubt ourselves into not writing. Those doubts creep into your mind and won’t leave. You question what you’re doing, if it’s all worth it, if you’ll ever make it. This is normal, expected even. It’s gonna happen at some point …

Writing Multiple WIPs

I always promised myself that I would never start writing another book until I finished the one I was currently working on. This self-proclaimed rule lasted for hardly a year before I just HAD to write the beginning scenes of a book I couldn’t stop thinking about. You all know how it is. But if …

My Short Story got Published!!

Last year, my teacher challenged me to write a short story and submit it to the honors society I’m in. Phi Theta Kappa’s Literary Anthology, Nota Bene, holds a competition every year so students all over can enter their work to be judged and selected for publication. I had nearly forgotten I had even submitted …

5 Things Every Writer Should Always Remember

As writers of many genres, we actually have a lot in common. If you think about it, all of us writers essentially do the same exact thing. We tell stories. That’s our job as writers. We’re storytellers. So, no matter what type of genre you write there’s always going to be those things that all …

Supporting Characters

What’s a good novel without a main character? Well, what about the supporting characters? Although a book isn’t really a book without your main hero/heroine, we can’t ignore the importance of the supporting characters. In fact, you can argue that they are just as significant as the main character. Supporting characters come in all shapes …

Writing Yourself in a Hole

Have you ever been writing, and you feel like you’re just going down a path that leads to absolutely nowhere? Yeah, me too. This usually happens when I’ve hit a dead end in my plot, or run straight into a brick wall in the manuscript. Is there a way to avoid doing this? Not really. …

Handling Criticism

Whenever you put yourself or your product (in this case our books) out into the world, you have to be prepared to receive criticism. I’m not talking about bad reviews; that’s a different subject all together, but I’m talking about when someone reads your book and they tell you that it has some problems that …

The Information Dump

As the author, we know everything about our books. All the little details, backstories, big reveals, and so on. However, when someone reads our book, they don’t know any of this, so when we begin to disclose information, we want to make it as easy to understand and follow as possible. There’s usually that one …

Forced Writing

Okay, let’s just admit that sometimes we force ourselves to sit down and write. There are deadlines to meet, word count goals to hit, and overall, a book that needs to be written. But what if when we manage to put down our phones, get rid of all other distractions and still can’t seem to …

Don’t Compare Your Writing

In a world full of competition, it’s hard not to compare yourself to other authors. It’s easy to read a book by another author and then read your own and reflect on all the “bad” aspects of your writing. For this very reason, some authors won’t read, which I disapprove of, but I also understand …