What do Water for Elephants, The Night Circus, and Wool have in common? They all started as NaNoWriMo projects. Every year hundreds of thousands of authors around the globe participate in National Novel Writing month, or NaNoWriMo, with the goal of finishing a 50,000 words manuscript in just 30 days. But, only a fraction actually finish their novels. Writing…
Story Patterns
The original url for this post was writetabulous.com I recently attended a writer’s workshop that was hosted by a local writers group. The presenter, Judy Olsen, talked about story patterns and how learning and using one of five basic constructs could make a world of difference in your writing success. Since I have never structured a book…
Critique Groups
Critiques are an essential part of the writing process. A critique is not simply a list of flaws, but offers suggestions for improvement. Here’s a list of seven critique sites that will make your writing better. http://publishedtodeath.blogspot.com/2017/10/becoming-better-writer-getting-critiques.html
How Much Detail? Getting Your Setting Right
by Jo Anne Fontanilla Every story takes place at same point or points in space and in time. It is incumbent upon the writer of fiction to “place” his story in space and time, as early as possible in his narrative, so that you will begin making the proper associations with the setting. The setting…
New Writing Academy Course Bundles Are a Great Deal!
Our most popular offering at Writing Academy is our monthly subscription package where you get ALL of our courses for just $49 a month. But not everyone needs all that content. So we’ve just created two new bundles tailored for writers specifically interested in fiction or non-fiction. Now there’s a package just right for everyone!…
Translating Your Self-Published Book
One of the advantages of self-publishing is that you don’t have to wait for your publisher to translate your book. You can do it yourself! Translation can help open your book up to more markets, but keep in mind that your translated book will need to be promoted – just like the original. Read more:…
Helping Children Become Better Writers
The New York Times interviewed Steve Graham, a professor at Arizona State University’s Teachers College who has been researching how young people learn to write. They asked him whether a parent should correct a child’s writing, or just be encouraging. Here’s what he said: Sometimes when kids come to you to share what they’re writing, they’re…
Internet Business Insights
Many of my courses include lessons about self-publishing and how to market books once they’re published. A great marketing technique is to give your book away on Amazon periodically to drive it to the top of their bestseller list. Then you can charge for it while it is being promoted on Amazon’s lists. Since it…
Proofreading tips
Proofreading tips to help professional writers, students, or anyone that writes as part of their work day. Error free writing and typing is possible! The skill of proofreading is necessary whether you are a student, a professional writer, or someone who creates lots of office memos. No matter the context in which you are writing,…
Most famous books set in each state
Insider came up with this list of the most famous books set in each state. How many have you read? AL “To Kill A Mockingbird” (Harper Lee) AK “Into the Wild” (Jon Krakauer) AZ “The Bean Trees” (Barbara Kingsolver) AR “A Painted House” (John Grisham) CA “Play It As It Lays” (Joan Didion) CO “The…