WRITING RESOURCES
“. . . when people experience stories as if they were one of the characters, a connection is made with that character, and the character becomes entwined with the self. In our study, we see evidence of that in their brains.”
— Dylan Wanger, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Ohio State University
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FEATURING
Coming May 27, 2022
Screenwriting Basics
adapting your book into a screenplay
Instructor: Michael R. Elliott, Esq — My Word Publishing
Fri, May 27th 2022 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EDT
Join us in our upcoming screenwriting workshop on how to turn your book into a screenplay! In this class Michael Elliot will address how to write your logline, story theme, outline, first draft, rewriting and other parts of the writing process.
Registrants will receive a recording in addition to the live class.
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Drexel University Online
low-residency MFA Program
You need a program that’s as passionate about your writing as you are. Drexel University’s low-residency, two-year MFA in Creative Writing helps you grow as a writer in a supportive creative community – while letting you complete most of the career-focused curriculum online through workshops, reading tutorials, and one-on-one packet exchanges with notable published writers.
Check it out!
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WRITING RESOURCES
A – D
HOT LINKS NAVIGATION:
— A —
6 Effective Steps to Promote Your Book
By Aileen Weintraub — Writer’s Digest
Social media is a daunting albeit important aspect of promoting our work. Here, author Aileen Weintraub offers six steps to promote your book on social media authentically.
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7 Figure Fiction
HOW TO USE UNIVERSAL FANTASY TO SELL YOUR BOOKS TO ANYONE
By T. Taylor
There are only, in my humble opinion, two kinds of readers: Readers who love your books and readers who don’t know they love your books yet. But how do you reach those readers in the second category, no matter what kind of writer you are?
The answer to that question is . . . Universal Fantasy
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7 Reasons Why Writers Need to Belong to a Book Club
By Colleen Story
Do you belong to a book club? If not, it’s time you joined, and not just to market your books! Find out all the benefits a book club has to give you. You may be surprised!
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8 Steps to Side Characters
How to craft supporting roles
By Sacha Black
Do your characters fail to bring your story to life? Are they flat, boring or have no depth? Is your story lacking a little cohesion or sparkle?
In 8 Steps to Side Characters, you’ll discover:
- A step-by-step guide for creating side characters that bring your story alive
- The main types of side characters and what you should do with them
- The key to crafting character depth that hooks readers
- How to harness your character’s voice to deepen your reader’s experience
- Tips and tricks for using details to enhance characterization
- Methods for killing characters that will help deepen plot, theme and story
- Dozens of ideas for creating conflict with your side characters
- Tactics for differentiating characters and making them feel real to your reader
- Character archetypes and functions
- The most common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid
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40 Books That Might Help You Write Your Novel
By Rachel Krantz — BuzzFeed
For writers, every single book you read helps you write your book. Even if it’s a book you find badly written, you learn what not to do. As writers, reading is our fuel, our education, our most reliable cure for writer’s block. When in doubt how to proceed, read.
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Action as a Fiction-Writing Mode
By Mike Klaassen
As described by Evan Marshall in The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, action is the mode fiction writers use to show what is happening at any given moment in the story.
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Action Scenes
FIVE WAYS TO SEIZE THE MOMENT
By Helen Hardt
What are your characters’ seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling? More often than not, when an action scene doesn’t do it, it lacks sensory detail.
Sensory detail is extremely important in fiction writing. The reader wants to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel—inner feelings, as well—everything the character does. These details immerse the reader into the character’s head and heart. When a reader becomes a character, you’ve done your job well.
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Active Voice and Passive Voice
By Falguni — Shabdkosh
This article will help you understand the difference between active and passive voice and make your written and spoken skills of language better.
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Act One Writing Mistakes
WITHOUT A SOLID FOUNDATION, OUR STORIES FLOUNDER.
By Jeanne Veillette Bowerman — Writer’s Digest
Insights into the three mistakes writers make when creating the first act.
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Adapting Novel to Film
Writers Dan Wakefield, Kurt Vonnegut, and Bruce Jay Friedman have a discussion about the unique experience of having their work adapted to fit on the big screen.
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Adding Front and Back Material to Your Book
By Nancy J. Cohen
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Adding Suspense to Your Novel
TOP 8 TIPS FOR WRITERS
By Mark and Connor Sullivan — Writer’s Digest
Writing compelling conflict is a crucial tool to add urgency to your novel. Analyze the conflict through the lens of stakes and goals.
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Adverbs, Brrrrrr . . .
By Reavis Worthan at the KILLZONE
“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.”
— Stephen King.
I can’t agree more. I fear I’ll step on some toes here, because there are hundreds of authors who love adverbs and will argue ‘til the cows come home that they improve their writing. I can’t go there. Oh, I know they’re in my own novels and columns, they pop up without notice in the first drafts, but I do my best to weed them out and rewrite the sentences to make them better than the original.
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Advertising Solutions for KDP Authors
Whether you’ve published one title or thousands, Amazon offers unique advertising solutions for the books category.
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Agents Seeking Authors
NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS!
By Robert Lee Brewer — Writer’s Digest
Here are 20 literary agents actively seeking writers and their writing.
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Agents: When Good Agents Go Bad
AGENT DANIELLE SMITH’S FORMER CLIENTS SPEAK OUT
By Erica Verrillo — Publishers Weekly
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Alliance of Independent Authors
The Alliance of Independent Authors is a professional business membership organisation for self-publishing authors. A non-profit, we provide trusted advice, supportive guidance, and a range of resources, within a welcoming community of authors and advisors.
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Amp Up Your Story Impact
PUSHING BACK AND LEANING IN
By Tiffany Yates Martin — Writer’s Digest
The pros and cons of increasing tension and showing character arcs.
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Anatomy of a Book Layout
DOWNLOAD A FREE PDF
By My Word Publishing
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Anatomy of a Scene
By Diane Callahan
Scenes are the building blocks of stories. Every scene in a novel contributes to the story in some way, whether through characterization, atmosphere, or plot progression. In examining the anatomy of a scene, we’ll start with the big-picture skeleton, then dive into the essential organs, and end with the skin—the outward appearance of the writing itself.
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Anatomy of a Sequel
By Amanda Patterson — Writers Write
Everything you need to know about writing a reaction scene, which is also known as a sequel.
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Anger
37 WAYS TO WRITE ABOUT ANGER
By Amanda Patterson — Writers Write
When we write about angry characters, we should remember that there is always something behind this emotion. Anger is usually a surface emotion. It is a reaction to an underlying problem.
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Announcing the Winners!
28TH ANNUAL SELF-PUBLISHED BOOK AWARDS
By Writer’s Digest
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Antagonist — Protagonist
The Least You Should Know
By Amanda Patterson — Writers Write
If you know who your protagonist and antagonist are, and what they want, you will probably be able to tell a good story. These are the two most important characters in your story. They define the story goal and control the plot. Your characters are the answer to most of your problems in storytelling.
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The Antagonist in Story Structure
parts 1 and 2
By K.M. Weiland — Helping Writers Become Authors
Especially in a tightly plotted story, the antagonist is every bit as important a driver of the story structure as is the protagonist.
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Anti-Hero
DEFINING AND DEVELOPING YOUR ANTI-HERO
By Jessica Page Morrell — Writer’s Digest
Anti-heroes are the bastards of fiction—those bad guys readers love to hate and hate to love. Find out what makes a memorable anti-hero tick and how to write them in this excerpt from Bullies, Bastards & Bitches.
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April 2021 Writing Posts
THE TOP 10
By Writer’s Write
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Archetypal Character Arcs
By K.M. Weiland
Archetypal stories are stories that transcend themselves. Archetypes speak to something larger. They are larger than life. They are impossible—but ring with probability. They utilize a seeming representation of the finite as a mirror through which to glimpse infinitude.
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Archetypes and Story Structure
HOW THEY’RE CONNECTED
By K.M. Weiland
By its very nature, story structure is archetypal. It is a pattern we recognize emerging from story. It is a pattern as big as life itself, and therefore one about which we are always learning more, but it is also a pattern we have been able to distill into specific systems that help us consistently recreate these deeply resonant archetypes in story after story.
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Are ing Words Weak in Fiction Writing?
By Derek Haines — Just Publishing Advice
The English language has only two participle forms, which are ed and ing. Because of this, you are going to use a lot of these words and phrases in your writing.
But when we use perfect and progressive tenses, or in some cases, the gerund form, the ing form of the verb can result in weak writing. Generally, we class simple past and simple present tense verbs as strong verbs.
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Armed and Dangerous
A WRITER’S GUIDE TO WEAPONS
By Michael Newton
This book is your comprehensive source for information.
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Articles by Jessica Strawser
Writer’s Digest
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Art of Beginning a Crime Story: Raymond Chandler
THE 10 GREATEST OPENING PARAGRAPHS FROM A NOIR MASTER
By Dwyer Murphy — CrimeReads
There are times in life when you need a good opener. Maybe you’re caught in a rut and need the charge of a new world, new characters, something that carries with it the quiet thrill of possibility. Whatever your reason or need, you’d be hard pressed to find an author equal to Raymond Chandler in jolting a story alive.
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Art of Fiction
By Joan Didion — The Paris Review
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Art of Fiction
NOTES ON CRAFT FOR YOUNG WRITERS
By John Gardner
This classic guide, from the renowned novelist and professor, has helped transform generations of aspiring writers into masterful writers—and will continue to do so for many years to come.
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Aspiring Novelist Dos and Don’ts
10 TIPS
By Jenna Avery — Writer’s Digest
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Ask The Coach
YOUR WRITING QUESTIONS ANSWERED
By Mary Simses — Writer’s Digest
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At Home Author
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GETTING PUBLISHED FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME
Choosing between traditional and self-publishing can be difficult without all the facts, and navigating them while learning the industry can be even more overwhelming. That’s where we come in.
We offer self-paced courses, webinar replays, free resources, and individualized coaching sessions for all your publishing needs, no matter where you’re at in the process.
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Audience: Target Identification
By AmyJones — Writer’s Digest
How to know your target audience, and how knowing will make your writing stronger.
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Author Archetype
WHAT IS YOUR AUTHOR ARCHETYPE?
Take this one-minute quiz to discover your Author Archetype and how you can make it work for you!
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Author’s Guide to eBook Pre-orders
By Clayton Noblit — Written Word Media
Getting a newly published eBook off to a good start is a great thing. It can teach retailer algorithms that the book is popular and can seed your title with reviews that help with future sales. So, how do you release an eBook with a bang? One great tactic is to use eBook pre-orders.
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Author’s Guide to Self-Publishing
This up-to-the minute guide tells you everything you need to get started.
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Author Incubator
WE’LL HELP YOU WRITE A BOOK
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Author Interviews
By Read More Co, LLC
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Author Quick Start Guide
By Brian Tracy
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Author Platform
How to build an author platform
By IngramSpark Academy — Self-Publishing
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Author in Progress
what it really takes to get published
By Therese Walsh
Author in Progress is filled with practical, candid essays to help you reach the next rung on the publishing ladder. By tracking your creative journey from first draft to completion and beyond, you can improve your craft, find your community, and overcome the mental barriers that stand in the way of success.
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Author Spending
WHAT? WHEN? HOW MUCH?
By Boni Wagner-Stafford — Ingenium Books
Most authors will—and should—start spending money long before they publish their book.
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Author Starter Kit
By Sherry Peters
This FREE guide enables you to lay out what you want to achieve, why you want it, and exactly what you need to do to get it.
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Author Success Map
A THREE-STEP PROCESS FOR CREATING AN AUTHOR SUCCESS MAP
By Marissa Decuir — Writer’s Digest
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Author Websites
CREATING AND PROMOTING
LiveCarta
The importance of having a well-built, comprehensive website for every writer in 2022 shouldn’t be underestimated. Choosing the right promotional strategy can turn it into a gold mine for lucrative book sales.
In this article, we’ll cover reasons why authors need a website, guide you on website creation, and share marketing strategies that will drive traffic to your author page.
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— B —
Backstory
SHOULD BE THE SCAR TISSUE OF YOUR BOOK
By Amanda Patterson — Writers Write
Make readers interested in characters before telling everything about their past lives.
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Bad Guys
INSIDE THE MIND OF A VILLAIN
By Dustin Grinnell — Writer’sDigest
How and why evil develops in story and in real life and how you can apply these concepts when writing villains
Why? What motivated this person? What was going on inside their head? How did they go from quiet and nerdy to hateful and violent? Were they isolated, disenfranchised, lost? Were they triggered or born a monster? We usually blame mental health issues, poor upbringing, bad wiring, and then we move on.
Writers are encouraged to go deeper.
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Bad Guys
HUMANIZING THE BAD GUY
By Usvaldo de Leon, Jr. — Helping Writers Become Authors
It is not just good guys who need to be humanized, but bad guys as well. They need to be thicker than cardboard so they don’t collapse when confronted. And it doesn’t take much.
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Baskerville Experiment
FONT AND ITS INFLUENCE ON OUR PERCEPTION OF TRUTH
By Ken Bowen — MarketingExeriments
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Beating Writer’s Block
11 AWESOME TIPS
By StudyCorgi
Have you ever found yourself staring at your laptop’s screen, being unable to write anything? No worries! All writers have to struggle with the lack of inspiration. Want to know how to overcome writer’s block? Study this infographic and learn 11 awesome tips that work!
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Become a Freelance Book Editor
EDITORIAL ARTS ACADEMY: WHERE WORDSMITHS LEARN TO PROSPER FROM THEIR PASSION
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Become A Thriller Writer
AN INTERVIEW WITH IAN SUTHERLAND
By Bryan — Become A Writer Today
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Becoming a Writer
By Junot Diaz — OPRAH.COM
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Becoming a Writer at 50
By Rebecca Foust — Writer’s Digest
It’s never too late to become a successful writer. Get started now, regardless of where you are in your writing journey.
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Be The Dog
HOW TO START (AND MORE IMPORTANTLY) FINISH YOUR NOVEL
By Brian Yansky
Want to write a novel? Don’t know where to start? Be The Dog has over a 100 mini-lessons on plot, character, setting, language, dialog, and has many strategies to begin and finish your novel.
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Before You Self-Publish
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
By Joshua C. Cook
Writing a book is hard work. There is a lot to learn before you actually publish your book.
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Beginner’s Guide to Getting Published
By Sam Blum
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Beginnings
HOW TO START YOUR BOOK
By Alexa Donne
First line? First act? Common pitfalls, things to watch and avoid!
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Being Indie
A NO HOLDS BARRED SELF-PUBLISHING GUIDE FOR AUTHORS
By Eeva Lancaster
Learn how to create a book that SELLS.
To be a published author is an achievement few can brag about. But not all Indies are created equal.
This book will give you the edge you need.
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James Scott Bell
James Scott Bell is a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure (Writer’s Digest Books).
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Best Free Creative Writing Courses Online
FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, FICTION AND NONFICTION
By Hayley Milliman — ProWritingAid
Luckily, there are a ton of great courses you can take online.
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Best Free Online Writing Courses
FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, FICTION AND NONFICTION
By Tom Corson-Knowles — TCK Publishing
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Best Kindle Unlimited Books
By Silvana Reyes Lopez
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Best Publishing News and Resource Websites 2021
101 BEST WEBSITES FROM THE MAY/JUNE 2021 ISSUE OF WRITER’S DIGEST
Writer’s Digest
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Best Spy Novels Written by Spies
By Alma Katsu — CrimeReads
ALMA KATSU IS AN AUTHOR AND RETIRED INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL
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Best Websites for Writers 2021
By Writer’s Digest
These websites will help inspire, educate, and connect you to other writers as you start or continue on your writing journey.
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Best Writing Books
By Dawn Field — BookBaby
There are a huge number of books on writing and if you want to pick the absolute “best,” you have two choices. The first is to pick books that the most people have read and enjoyed. The second is to admit that the best books for each writer will be different.
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Betrayal Is Timeless
THE EVOLUTION OF GEORGE SMILEY
By Bruce Riordan — CrimeReads
In 1961, John le Carré’s readers were introduced to a new kind of spy, a “breathtakingly ordinary” man.
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Building Story Structure
By Film Riot
How to use the 6-act structure to construct stories!
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Bird By Bird
SOME INSTRUCTIONS ON WRITING AND LIFE
By Anne Lamott
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Blackdoge Books
AVAILABLE AUTHOR SERVICES:
- Paperback and ebook publishing
- Document design and formatting
- Editing and proofing
- Typesetting
- Ebook conversion
- Distribution assistance
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Blogging Strategies
BLOGGING FOR AUTHORS: LESSON #13
By Nina Amir
A blog provides a useful tool for authors. It provides a way to build a business around your books.
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Book Marketing Tips for Authors
16 free videos
By David Gaughran
A book promotion template that anyone can follow. Learn how to create your own marketing plan to put your book into the charts.
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Building a New Blog from Scratch — Part 1
part one of a series on creating your own blog
By Christopher Luke Dean — Writers Write
If you’re thinking of starting a new blog, follow the series and try to create your own. (Sign up for our newsletter to watch out for new posts.)
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The Blurbs
FIVE (NOT SO EASY) STEPS
By Julie Tetel Andresen
Blurbs are the most important tool for selling your book. Here are the elements of writing a good one.
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Body Beats to Build On
A FICTION WRITER’S RESOURCE
By April W. Gardner
An emotion phrase book that provides the bones for fresh, vibrant content.
Layer with a little imagination, mix and match, and voilà—endless, unique beats. No more pet phrases. No more wasting time in search of a different way to write “she blushed.” Just you and your manuscript climbing to the next level. This easy-to-navigate tool for novelists is a must-have for your fiction self-editing checklist.
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Body Language
CHEAT SHEETS FOR ‘WRITING BODY LANGUAGE
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Books About Writing
ADVICE TO WRITERS
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Book Covers
INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE DESIGNS THAT HIT HARD AND QUICK
By Ellie Violet Bramley — The Guardian
Social media is now a vital platform to promote new titles. And that means jacket designs that hit you ‘hard and quick’
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Book Cover Design
READERS JUDGE BOOKS BY THE COVER!
By M.J. Albert — Writer and Book Marketing Expert
I have helped my clients become Amazon Best Selling Authors through a step by step process that works. A process that starts with the book’s cover.
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Book Cover Designer
PREMIUM PREMADE AND CUSTOM BOOK COVER DESIGNS FOR INDIE AUTHORS
The Cover Collection
With over 25 years of design experience, the team at The Cover Collection know how to get your book noticed. We design book covers for those writing their first novel through to authors who regularly hit the top spot on Amazon’s bestseller lists. To learn more about The Cover Collection and to read testimonials from recent clients please click here.
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CLICK HERE!
Book Cover Designer
Nancy Batra Design Studio
I provide custom book cover designs as well as marketing material for indie authors and self publishers.
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Book Description
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
Your description appears on your book’s Amazon detail page and is often a reader’s first experience with the content of your book. A well-written book description is important for enticing readers. Think of your description like the text on the back cover of a paperback or the inside flap of a hardcover book. This is often the first impression readers have of your story’s content and your writing style.
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Book Design Tips
DESIGNING YOUR BOOK
Gorham Printing
Factors such as visual appeal, the book’s audience, color, and font usage are just some of the aspects to be considered.
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Book Launch Planning
CREATING A SUCCESSFUL EVEN
By Steven Spatz
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Book Length
HOW LONG SHOULD A BOOK BE?
By Chuck Sambuchino — Writer’s Digest
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Book Marketing
OVERPERFORM IN A CROWDED MARKET
By Ricardo Fayet
Writing a book is hard. Marketing it can be even harder.
Marketing a book in 2021 can seem like a full-time job, what with the crazy number of things authors seem to be expected to do: social media, blog tours, advertising, price promotions, mailing lists, giveaways, you name it.
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Book Marketing Podcast
How to Turn Readers into Superfans
By Penny Sansevieri — AME Author Marketing Experts
In this book marketing podcast episode, we talk about Superfans and Street Teams and what they can do for your longevity as an author!
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Book Marketing Update
By Frances Caballo — Social Media Just for Writers
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Book Riot
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
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Book Riot YouTube Videos
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Book Theme Songs
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could also click on an audio file to listen to the book’s theme song?
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Book Trailers
By Eeva Lancaster
- The video will be your SYNOPSIS in Motion.
- We do not use templates. Your book trailer will be original.
- We use cinematic music backgrounds and customized full screen still images and animations combined.
- It will be a visual rendition of your blurb, designed to trigger an emotional response from the viewer.
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Book of the Year Awards
The Independent Authors Network
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Border Stories
A GUIDE TO THE NOVELS OF DON WINSLOW
By Bruce Riordan — CrimeReads
Ten years ago, Don Winslow was a San Diego-based novelist with a small, but hardcore following of crime fiction aficionados. Since then, thanks to the breakout success of his epic Cartel Trilogy, Winslow’s popularity has soared among readers with a taste for hard-hitting, socially-engaged thrillers.
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Both Barrels Author Services
- Editing
- Formatting
- Cover Design
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Breaking Story
FOR YOUR MOVIE OR TV SHOW IDEA
By Ken Miyamoto — Screencraft
Everyone in the world that watches movies and TV — at one point — believes that they have an excellent idea for a movie or TV show. Yet having an idea is not enough.
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Breakout Novelist
HOW TO CRAFT NOVELS THAT STAND OUT AND SELL
By Donald Maass
If you’re serious about making your fiction vibrant, engaging, and marketable, you’ve found the right book.
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Ellen Brock
PROFESSIONAL EDITOR
Whether you need a full novel edit or just an hour of mentoring, I’d love to work with you! Together we will give your novel its best chance at traditional or self-publishing success.
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Build Better Characters
The psychology of backstory
Compelling characters are what keeps readers turning pages and buying books — from fantasies to mysteries to the great literary novel. But how to do you create characters that feel three dimensional and real on the page? Counsellor and author Eileen Cook shares common psychological techniques to help you build your characters and take your story to the next level.
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Building Your Author Website
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
By Jane Friedman — Writer’s Digest
Your author website is your online home, and it may be the single most important tool for promoting yourself and your work. Here is a step-by-step guide to build your author website today and build for tomorrow.
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The Business of Being a Writer
WRITING IS ALSO A BUSINESS
By Jane Friedman
To have a productive full- or part-time writing career, you need to understand the basic business principles underlying the industry.
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The Business of Self-Publishing
FINDING AND ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE
By A.J. Wells — Writer’sDigest
Self-publication allows you complete control over the production side of your novel. If your goal is to make money, you must write a book that people will pay to read.
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— C —
Frances Caballo
Frances Caballo is a social media consultant for authors. As someone who worked as a journalist and in public relations, she understands how media – including online media – works.
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CALIBRE eBook Management
A POWERFUL AND EASY TO USE E-BOOK MANAGER.
Users say it’s outstanding and a must-have. It’ll allow you to do nearly everything and it takes things a step beyond normal e-book software. It’s also completely free and open source and great for both casual users and computer experts.
IT’S FREE!
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Capitalization
ARE SIR, MADAM (OR MA’AM) AND MISS CAPITALIZED?
By The Editor’s Manual
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Capitalization
YOU’RE PROBABLY DOING IT WRONG
By Merethewalther
One of the most common misconceptions in writing is when to capitalize things, and when they should stay lowercase. This is honestly a big issue, and can take your manuscript from potentially looking professional to seemingly amateurish in a heartbeat.
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Capitalization of Military and Other Titles
WHEN ARE TITLES (COLONEL, QUEEN, SIR, ETC.) CAPITALIZED?
By LiveJournal
Capitalization of these kinds of titles depend on how they’re being used.
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Capitalizing on the Stickiness of Serial Fiction
By Lee Purcell — BookBaby
It’s not likely you’ll get rich writing serial fiction, but you can gain exposure for your work and get feedback from readers to gain insights for shaping and honing your storytelling skills.
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Captivate Your Readers
AN EDITOR’S GUIDE TO WRITING COMPELLING FICTION
By Jodie Renner
Are you looking for techniques to really bring your fiction to life for the readers, so they feel they’re right there, on the edge of their seats, struggling with the hero or heroine? This award-winning editor’s guide to writing compelling fiction provides specific advice, with examples, for captivating readers and immersing them in your story world.
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Central Booking Interviews on YouTube
HUGE LIST OF FREE WRITER INTERVIEWS HERE
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Raymond Chandler
THE ART OF BEGINNING A CRIME STORY
By Dwyer Murphy — CrimeReads
There are times in life when you need a good opener. Whatever your reason or need, you’d be hard pressed to find an author equal to Raymond Chandler in jolting a story alive.
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Channeling Your Inner Voice
FROM POINT BREAK WRITER W. PETER ILIFF
By Al Horner — Screencraft
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Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint
By Nancy Kress
I built this guided notebook originally for my own use, to help me create, document, and track characters as I write my novels.
- How do you create a main character readers won’t forget?
- How do you write a book in multiple-third-person point of view without confusing your readers (or yourself)?
- How do you plant essential information about a character’s past into a story?
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Character Definition
Can you define your characters in one word?
By K.M. Weiland — Writers Helping Writers Become Authors
Because of the space and time limitations of a story, our characters are always going to be far less multifaceted than are real people. (Actually, when you come right down to it, we have no choice but to simplify our characters, since if we tried to present all the contradictions of a real human being, our readers would end up bewildered…)
In recognizing this limitation, here’s how to strengthen our characters and, more importantly, strengthen our readers’ perception of them.
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Character Description
11 SECRETS TO WRITING AN EFFECTIVE CHARACTER DESCRIPTION
By Rebecca McClanahan — Writer’s Digest
Are your characters dry, lifeless husks? Author Rebecca McClanahan shares 11 secrets to keep in mind as you breathe life into your characters through effective character description, including physical and emotional description.
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Character Development
EASY-TO-FOLLOW TIPS TO MAKE READERS LOVE YOUR CHARACTERS
By Hannah Yang — ProWritingAid
It doesn’t matter how intricate your worldbuilding is, or even how exciting your plot is. If your characters fall flat, your readers will probably stop reading.
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Character Habits and Quirks
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHARACTER HABITS AND QUIRKS
By Paula Wynnw — Writer’s Digest
What exactly is the difference between behaviors, habits, mannerisms, and quirks? Read on to learn the subtle (yet important) differences between them and how to apply them to your characters.
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Character Identification
WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS IDENTIFY CHARACTERS PRONTO
By K.M. Weiland
Introducing characters by name—and even a brief description by way of reminder if necessary—is a simple courtesy that will ensure readers are never yanked from your narrative by the need to hunt down antecedents.
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Character Inner Conflict
WANT VS. NEED
By K.M. Weiland
All stories are ultimately rooted in the primal and personal struggle of a character’s inner conflict. The external plot is the reflection/projection of the character’s inner struggle upon the external world.
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Character Names
THE 7 RULES FOR PICKING CHARACTER NAMES
By Elizabeth Sims — Writer’s Digest
No matter what sort of character name you’re pursuing, heed common sense and follow these seven tips to make sure you pick the best names possible for your story.
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Character Questions
10 QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ASK YOUR CHARACTERS
By Brenda Janowitz — Writer’s Digest
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.
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Character Quirks
TIPS FOR WRITING QUIRKY CHARACTERS
By Kerry Winfrey — Writer’s Digest
Looking for ways to spice up your characters?
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Character Tool for Novelists
By Kirsten Mortensen
I built this guided notebook originally for my own use, to help me create, document, and track characters as I write my novels.
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Character Voice
By K.M. Weiland
The single most important factor in getting readers’ attention is a strong, unique, and personality-heavy narrative voice. Voice is what defines both your story and your narrating character. You can think of voice as your story’s unique fingerprint.
We can perfectly understand characters in our heads and in our outlines, but when we actually start putting them onto the page, their personalities—and thus their voices—can prove elusive.
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Characters
SIGNS YOUR STORY HAS TOO MANY CHARACTERS
By K.M. Weiland
There comes a point when so many characters are actually too many.
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Characters
WHAT IS A DYNAMIC CHARACTER?
By Dave Chesson — Kindlepreneur
A dynamic character is great for readers, and can be some of the most memorable literary elements in a story. But what is a dynamic character, and how can you get one?
In this article you will learn:
- What a dynamic character is
- Why they are important
- How dynamic characters relate to a real person
- Some examples of dynamic characters in literature and film
- How you can create a complex personality with a dynamic character
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Characters
CREATING INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE CHARACTERS
By Helga Schier — Writer’s Digest
Meeting characters in a novel is very much like meeting people in real life. When we start reading a book, it’s as if we moved to a new town and were meeting a whole bunch of new people at the same time. Your job as a writer is to create that town and populate it with characters that live their lives before our eyes.
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Characters Can Surprise Us
By Ron Corbett — Writer’s Digest
Ron discusses the way his characters evolved throughout the writing process of his new mystery novel, The Sweet Goodbye, his advice for other writers, and more!
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Characters and Setting
WHY WRITERS SHOULD CREATE A SETTING LIKE A CHARACTER
By Amanda Patterson — Writers Write
Do you want to create memorable settings? In this post we look at why writers should create a setting like a character and how to do it. Many authors say that their setting becomes a character in the stories they write. Some even start with the setting and then add the characters.
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Characters and Stories
MAKING CHARACTERS AND STORIES BETTER — MORAL DILEMMAS
By Steven James — Writer’s Digest
Readers can’t resist turning pages when characters are facing tough choices. Use these 5 keys to weave moral dilemmas into your stories—and watch your fiction climb to new heights.Dreaming of establishing your reputation as a writer but don’t know where to begin? Here is a simple career plan to help you.
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Characters Who Are Fictional
TIPS FOR BREATHING LIFE INTO FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
By E.J. Levy — Writer’s Digest
Has a historical figure, a political candidate, or someone else captured your writerly fascination?
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Characters Who Are Flawed
HOW TO WRITE FLAWED CHARACTERS
By David Corbett — Writer’s Digest
Flawed characters and antiheroes make for fascinating protagonists—but their behavior can risk alienating readers. Follow this blueprint for flawed-yet-relatable heroes who can still provoke empathy.
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Characters Who Are Single
HOW TO WRITE A CHARACTER WHO IS SINGLE
By Craig Wynne — Writer’s Digest
Dr. Craig Wynne shares strategies for writing single characters in fiction who are strong, healthy, and fulfilled. He includes 4 clichés and tropes to avoid when writing single characters, 4 alternative strategies, and why writers should even care.
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Lee Child — Starting Writing After 40
By Lee Child — On YouTube
In this interview, bestselling novelist Lee Child (Jack Reacher novels) explains why it’s better to start writing later in life.
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Agatha Christie
WHEN THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS MYSTERY WRITER VANISHED
By Tina Jordan — The New York Times
On a cold December night in 1926, Agatha Christie went out in her beloved Morris Cowley roadster and didn’t return home for 11 days. Here’s how her disappearance played out.
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Class on Writing
BOOK A CLASS NOW
By Streamline Writing Classes
Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates on classes and writing.
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Classes on Writing for Everyone
LISTING OF CLASSES AND EVENTS
By FORA
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Commas: Where Do They Go?
By Carol Saller — CMOS Shop Talk
Commas Are Complicated
Teachers don’t always reveal the whole truth, even to their best students, that punctuation isn’t always a right-or-wrong kind of thing, or that different publishers have different comma rules, or that sometimes it’s only by fudging a rule that creative writing can begin to sing.
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Conflict
5 WAYS TO INCREASE CONFLICT
By Eileen Cook — Writer’s Digest
Learn how to plot and structure your novel by adding and increasing conflict.
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Conflict
4 TYPES OF CONFLICT
By Karen Ann Lefkowitz — Writer’s Digest
Conflict is what drives a story. Without opposition, the story becomes lifeless. Learn the four types of conflict and how to effectively use them in your next screenplay.
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Conflict
WHERE DOES CONFLICT COME FROM IN FICTION?
By Mia Botha — Writers Write
We’ve all been told time and again that conflict is fiction, but we’re rarely given more of an explanation after that. It is true, conflict is what drives our stories and make the readers turn the page, but what is it and where exactly does it come from?
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Conflict in Fiction
SEVEN TYPES OF CONFLICT AND HOW TO USE THEM
By Gina Edwards — ProWritingAids
“Nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict.”
— Robert McKee, Law of Conflict, and storytelling is governed by it.
The finer details like story setting, character, and plot events all give the reader context and understanding, but conflict, according to McKee, is the “soul” of story. Every kind of story, every genre – novel, short story, science fiction, romance, mystery, historical, young adult, etc. – requires it.
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Conflict in Fiction
WHAT IT REALLY IS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO PLOT
K.M. Weiland
Conflict is one of the central engines of story. We’ve all heard it: no conflict, no story. On the surface, that makes total sense. It’s natural enough for our modern, western minds to conflate conflict and confrontation when we consider fiction.
There’s more to it than that!
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Conflict in Fiction
HOW TO WRITE INNER CONFLICT
Norma Curtis — Writer’s Digest
Conflict is a necessary ingredient to all storytelling.
Conflict creates friction and without friction, the narrative would be a succession of happy scenes. In a novel, that’s boring because we are hardwired to want something to happen. We know from our own life experiences that the next moment of excitement or turning point is just around the corner. Conflict is a dramatic requirement.
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Conflict: Man vs. Nature
By Krystal N. Craiker — ProWritingAids
A story without conflict isn’t much of a story at all. One of these conflicts is known as man vs. nature — a story that writers come back to over and over.
Because it’s grounded in a reality we all know, man vs. nature can provide endless possibilities for fictional story ideas.
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The Conflict Thesaurus
a writer’s guide to obstacles, adversaries, and inner struggles
By
Every story starts with a character who is motivated by a need and has a goal that can resolve it. Whether their objective is to find a life partner, bring a killer to justice, overthrow a cruel regime, or something else, conflict transforms a story premise into something fresh. Physical obstacles, adversaries, moral dilemmas, deep-seated doubts and personal struggles…these not only block a character’s external progress, they become a gateway for internal growth.
The right conflict will build tension and high stakes, challenge characters as they traverse their arcs, and most importantly, keep readers emotionally invested from beginning to end.
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Confronting Stereotypes in My Fiction
By Cate Holahan
It’s a minefield that I explore in my upcoming domestic suspense novel, Her Three Lives.
Her Three Lives — Gaslight goes high-tech in USA Today bestselling author Cate Holahan’s new standalone thriller in which a family must determine who the real enemy is after a brutal home invasion breaks their trust in each other.
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Contracts 101
THE GRANT OF RIGHT CLAUSE
By Jane Friedman
The legalize writers need to understand to protect their long-term earning potential.
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Controlling the Element of Time in Your Novel
TIME IS A SLIPPERY THING
By C.S. Lakin
We need to control the pacing in our stories, and one great way to do that is to manipulate time.
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Cosmic Horro
THREE TIPS FOR WRITING IT
By Scott Kenemore — Writer’s Digest
Cosmic horror, unlike any other fiction genre, is usually considered as a horror sub-genre that emphases the randomness of the universe and the insignificance of humanity.
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Cover Creator
BE YOUR OWN COVER DESIGNER
By Terri Main — Author, Publisher, Graphic Designer
Download this FREE report!
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Cover to Cover
WHAT FIRST-TIME AUTHORS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EDITING
By Sandra Wendel
Read this book before you publish your book.
This is the one book you need to read and follow if you’re writing a book for the first time. Why? Because you’ve never written a book before. This is new territory.
To write a successful book, you need to find and work with an editor who shares your passion for your work and your message and who will help you make your book sing. And sing a smash hit. A blockbuster of a message, clearly and carefully constructed so readers love you and your work and leave you five-star Amazon reviews only because they don’t have more stars to give.
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The Craft of Character
HOW TO CREATE DEEP ENGAGING CHARACTERS
By Mark Paul Boutros
Character is at the heart of every story. We love stories because we fall in love with characters, we want to see what happens to them and we want to see them experience hope and despair.
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Craft of Writing
OVER 35 VIDEO LESSONS WITH FOREVER ACCESS
By Christopher Hawke
- Will you succeed as a writer?
- Leverage your ability by honing your craft.
- Finish your story with confidence.
- Join those who have revolutionized their writing life…
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Crafting Animal Characters
THE BASICS ON HOW TO CREATE AN ANIMAL CHARACTER
By Moriah Richards — Writer’s Digest
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Creating Characters
A QUICK-START GUIDE FOR CREATING CHARACTERS
By Mia Botha — Writers Write
Creating characters properly takes time. In this post, we’ve created a quick-start guide for creating characters.
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Creating Characters in Fiction
A QUICK-START GUIDE FOR CREATING CHARACTERS
By Golden Storyline Books
Characters are the heartbeat of almost every story. They generally have two different purposes in a narrative: to be human enough for your readers or audience to identify with them and to contribute to the meaning or message intended by the author.
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Creating Compelling Characters
TIPS FOR WRITING CAPTIVATING CHARACTERS
By Cassie Beebe — About Writing
Characters have always been an aspect of storytelling that has come naturally to me. They live in my mind, roaming free, living their lives and being themselves, and my job is simply to reflect that accurately on the page. But for my most recent novel, Moving On, things were different.
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Creating a Flexible Outline
A SEVEN-STEP PROCESS
By K.M. Weiland — Writer’s Digest
Many writers who swear they dislike outlines are thinking of them in the wrong ways. K.M. Weiland’s seven-step process to creating a flexible outline for any story can help you let loose and have fun in your first draft.
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Creating Literary Story
LEARN CHARACTER , PLOT, DIALOGUE, NARRATION
By William H. Coles
With this course, you will learn, in eight lessons, to create effective characters with action scenes, conflict resolution, change, identifiable core desire, enlightenment, and working dialogue; and you will learn to structure dramatic literary plots that are character-based, narrated effectively, and created with agreed-upon prose that lasts as an art form.
View a FREE video of a course lesson!
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Creating Literary Stories
THE ENTIRE SIX-BOOK SERIES
By William H. Coles
A Six Book Series on how to write exceptional prose fiction and create written stories that are remembered, engage, and that please readers with perception of life and living in an increasingly complex world.
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Creating Negative Tension
A FREE YOUTUBE VIDEO
By Bill Johnson
How to create and sustain narrative tension in a novel, screenplay, or play.
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Creating Unforgettable Characters
By Linda Seger
How to create strong, multidimensional characters in fiction, covering everything from research to character block.
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Creating Your Character’s Inner Conflict
WANT VS. NEED
By K.M. Weiland
As individuals, our conflicts with others or the world itself are almost inevitably either reflections or projections of our inner conflicts—our cognitive dissonances, our conflicting wants and needs, sometimes even our conflicting wants and wants or conflicting needs and needs.
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Creative Penn
ONE OF THE TOP 100 BLOGS FOR WRITERS
Joanna Penn is a podcaster, international speaker, and award-winning creative entrepreneur. This site is regularly voted one of the Top 100 blogs for writers by Writers Digest. Most of the information on this site is free for you to read, watch or listen to.
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Creative Writing Course FREE
By About Writing
Covering plot& structure, character & development, writing effective, attractive prose, editing your work.
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Creative Writing Courses
By The Writers College
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Creativity Ramp-Up
HOBBIES, ACTIVITIES, AND CREATIVE PURSUITS
By Steve Hooley — @ The Kill Zone
For today’s post, I wanted to explore activities that writers use to ramp up creativity, refill the well of creativity, or “recharge our batteries.”
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Crime Fiction Secrets and Suspense
Interviewer Paula L. Woods — Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Escape the humdrum of everyday life into worlds filled with gangsters, grifters and gut-wrenching suspense from three crime fiction writers that are at the top of their game. The conversation will be guided by mystery reviewer Paula L. Woods.
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CrimeReads
CHECK IT OUT. SIGN UP FOR THEIR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER.
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Crimes
DON’T COMMIT THESE 9 FICTION-WRITING CRIMES
By Alex J. Coyne — Writers Write
Have you ever encountered a story that was too clumsy, slow, or flat to finish reading? It is probably filled with fiction-writing crimes you should avoid committing. The world is full of bad fiction, and there are many different things that can make a story awful.
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Crime Writer’s Week
FULL SCHEDULE PLUS REPLAYS
Click the link and then scroll down to see replays and slides from the sessions.
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Customized Book Covers
By Eeva Lancaster
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— D —
Daily Meditations
WRITER TIPS FOR 100 DAYS
By David Farland
GET YOUR FREE COPY OF DAILY MEDITATIONS
- Learn how to get into “the zone” on Days Five through Eight.
- Find out the top reasons editors reject stories on Day 46.
- Read about the “beatitudes” every successful writer needs on Days 54 to 64.
- Get insight on how to write powerful endings on Day 96.
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Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers
By James Clear
As an example of what separates successful people from the rest of the pack, take a look at some of the daily routines of famous writers from past and present.
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Day in the Life of a Book Manager
By Eeva Lancaster
I do all the things an author needs to do, except write.
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Daydreaming
BOOKS TO HELP YOU DAYDREAM
By Gianessa Refermat — Book Riot
GET YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
Daydreaming goes past thinking positive thoughts. It’s more about creating an oasis.
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Deception
HOW STORIES DECEIVE
By Maria Konnikova — The New Yorker
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Deciding to Become a Writer
By Shane Everitt
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Define Your Path to Writing Success — FREE!
By The Daring Writer
In this FREE Guide, you will clearly lay out what you want to achieve, why you want it, and exactly what you need to do to get it.
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Descriptions
a quick start guide to writing descriptions
By Amanda Patterson — Writers Write
Are you scared of putting too much or too little description in your stories? In this post, we’ve included a quick start guide to writing descriptions.
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Detroit Crime Fiction
A LITERARY TRADITION LIKE NO OTHER
By Paul French — CrimeReads
Murder and Mayhem in the Motor City
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Dialogue
HOW TO MAKE DIALOGUE SOUND REAL
By Mike Klaassen
Dialogue is a literary device that mimics real speech, according to Renni Browne and Dave King in Self-Editing for Fiction Writers; “. . . dialogue is an artificial creation that sounds natural when you read it.” John Truby, in Anatomy of a Story, puts it a little differently: “Dialogue is not real talk: it is highly selective language that sounds like it could be real.”
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Dialogue
DON’T FORGET THE DIALOGUE
By K.M. Weiland
For many of us, dialogue is one of the most enjoyable parts to write in any story. A good story will include a balance of everything, and dialogue goes a long way toward breaking up potentially tedious scenes and keeping readers focused. You can think of dialogue as salt. It perks up the readerly taste buds and makes everything else taste better.
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Dialogue — How to Write It
7 great tips for writers
By Hannah Yang — ProWritingAid Fortune
Great dialogue serves multiple purposes. It moves your plot forward. It develops your characters and it makes the story more engaging.
It’s not easy to do all these things at once, but when you master the art of writing dialogue, readers won’t be able to put your book down.
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Dialogue Tips
HOW TO UP YOUR DIALOGUE GAME
By Emily Henry — Writer’s Digest
When there’s dialogue on the page, it should feel like something’s happening, like the plot or the emotional arc is being moved forward. If you find your dialogue feels like an interlude rather than an event, there’s a good chance that it’s lacking tension, or conflict.
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Dialogue Workbook
By Mia Botha — Writer’s Write
If you want to write great dialogue, buy The Dialogue Workbook. It will teach you everything you need to know to write compelling dialogue. It has 14 chapters on every aspect of dialogue.
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Dialogue on Writing
A SERIES OF INTERESTING PODCASTS
By Mitzi Rapkin — LitHub Radio
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Dialogue Writing Tips
By Emily Henry — Writer’s Digest
Here are four tricks to employ when dialogue needs a boost.
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Joan Didion on Storytelling, the Economy of Words, and Facing Rejection
By Maria Popova
“Short stories demand a certain awareness of one’s own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus.”
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Differences Between a Crime, Mystery, and Thriller Novel
By David Corbett — Writer’s Digest
To pitch the right agents, you first need to know exactly what it is you’re pitching. Learn the subtle differences among the many subgenres of suspense—and how to meet and exceed expectations in every one.
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Display Ads for Authors
OUR EXPERTS DO THE HEAVY LIFTING FOR YOU
By BookBaby
If you want more readers to reach the promised land, you have to lead them there. And one of the best ways to find new readers where they can buy your book is with Display Ads for Authors.
Display Ads for Authors uses the Google Display Network to advertise your book online.
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Disturbing
A GOOD STORY MUST BE DISTURBING
By Mark Rubinstein — Writer’s Digest
Whether you’re writing a literary novel, a psychological, medical, legal or spy thriller, or even a cozy mystery, for a novel to be engaging, it must center on human conflict and disturbance. Here’s what you need to know.
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Doublespeak: A Look at Voice
By Terry Odell — @ The Kill Zone (TKZ)
“I’m looking at two aspects of voice today: Character and Author.”
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Draw Out Your Story’s Tension
By K.M. Weiland
The first thing authors need to do is make sure we’ve got a humdinger of a prize waiting for our readers at the end of the story. Ramp up the stakes and prepare yourself to deliver fireworks! Beyond that, your primary concern adjusting the pacing, so you’re feeding readers little breadcrumbs of anticipation that continually whet their appetites for the big feast at the end.
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Dual Timeline
By K.M. Weiland
Some stories are so complicated they require not just one, but dual timelines to tell everything. The pitfalls of this are obvious, since you’re risking reader confusion and frustration by straying from the beaten path of a single chronological storyline. But the benefits are also manifold: dual timelines can create the opportunity for a deeper plot, more resonant theme, and greater character development.
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Dysfunctional Heroines
Celebrating Women Who Defy Expectations
By Dawn Winter — LitHub
Ultimately, all fiction is about struggles, losses, challenges, triumphs (not necessarily in that order). It is what people like to read because it is what they identify with and, as we know, this can go anywhere before it is resolved. But heroines like this seem to strike a chord.
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Dyslexia — A Writer’s Superpower
WHO KNEW?
By P.J. Manney — Writer’s Digest
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia should not be viewed as impediments to becoming a writer. Rather, they should be viewed as writing superpowers, especially when paired with certain technologies.
