Writer's Fun Zone by Beth Barany

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Writing Tips

One Writer’s Journey from The Beginning A Step-by-Step Beginner Writers Guide – Part 2 How to Write Your Novel Without Having a Background in Writing by Raina Schell

I’m writing this guide as my journey. I am now a third of the way through my 4th book in two years, and have just started my 5th. When I was thinking about it I though it would have been great to have a little step-by-step guide. A guide of someone else’s process, someone else who knew absolutely nothing… like me.

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Writing Tips

He Said, She Glared: The Battle of Action vs. Dialogue Tags by Jami Gray

Ahhh, the joys of tags. These are those pesky things writers tack after a dialogue run. They tell the reader who’s talking or what they’re doing, or sometimes they do both. These innocuous critters have stirred up quite the debate in the writing community. I’m sure you’ve heard them, whispering in the corners of the coffee shop or library:

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Writing Tips

Writers, Balancing Act: Learning vs. Doing, by Carol Malone

I’ve been stuck in my writing of late and I started wondering about my goals. Though I want to be a bestselling author and made every plan and goal in my mind to do so, something is holding me back. Maybe my goal isn’t big enough. Or maybe, something in my thinking went haywire and I started believing that I needed to read or study every word on the subject of writing before I could write another word.

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Writing Tips

A Writer’s Shame by Annmarie Miles

Have you ever felt it? The burning shame of knowing that you haven’t blogged in ages. When you look in your bag and your notebook is staring at you, all wounded and bereft because you haven’t opened it in a while. You WIP’s protagonist, who you once knew better than you know yourself, is now a distant stranger. You watch wistfully, and with more than a smidgeon of envy, the Facebook posts of writers who are blogging, editing and publishing like the wind. If you have felt such things, then you know what it is to feel it. The shame of the writer, who is not writing.

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Writing Tips

How to Be Funny Without Hurting Yourself by Catharine Bramkamp

When you try really, really hard to be funny, it inevitably won’t work. Like when my mother tells a joke. She always forgets some critical piece in the set up that, if forgotten, renders the punch line unintelligible. Which, as she backtracks and says, Oh, I forgot to tell you about the bath tub, is funny, but not the way she intended.

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Writing Tips

A Year to Publication Column: Writing a Holiday Romance by Jennifer Snow

Beautifully crafted holiday romance stories have always been my favourite novels to read: not only during the holiday season, but all year round. I’ve discovered that I’m not alone. Readers worldwide enjoy ‘love under the mistletoe’ stories that evoke sincere emotions and reflect family, heart and home. As writers, we play a part in enhancing the holidays for our readers by taking elements that may not be as magical in real life and making them sparkle on the pages.

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Writing Tips

“Always Worth It” by Nevada McPherson

Today I gave my classes an assignment: write about a story or event that is significant to you and why it’s significant or memorable. I haven’t seen their papers yet but some of the students told me what they had chosen to write about and these stories were very meaningful to them for various reasons. This just proves what I heard one of my writing heroes, Garrison Keillor, say on the radio show, A Prairie Home Companion years ago: telling a story and figuring out the best way to tell it is “always worth the effort.”

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