Writing Backstory: Know What’s Enough
Rhiannon Richardson Rhiannon Richardson

Writing Backstory: Know What’s Enough

Just like us, our characters all have pasts. Our histories are what make us who we are, and the events of our lives carry us to the present moment. Know when and how much to share about your character’s backstory so that your readers understand them and it doesn’t take away from the story.

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How to Submit Your First Ten Pages

How to Submit Your First Ten Pages

You are so familiar with your story’s opening, you’ve created blind spots. You’ve most likely rewritten this part more than any other, so in your mind it might still contain information you deleted four iterations ago. So how do you know whether your first ten pages are submission-ready?

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Literary Agent Pitch Session

Literary Agent Pitch Session

How do you catch an agent's attention during a pitch session? Here are some tips and tricks for crafting a successful pitch and making a good impression.

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Kill Your Darlings

Kill Your Darlings

As writers, we all have perceived strengths we fall back on time and time again. But can over-reliance on your strengths actually weaken your manuscript?

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What Type of Online Presence Do You Need?

What Type of Online Presence Do You Need?

What’s the right way to have an online presence? Both before getting a book deal and after, this is a common question for writers. After all, we often hear that it is essential to get your name, your face, your everything out there in order to make potential readers aware of you.

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Writing for an Audience

Writing for an Audience

If you want to pursue traditional publication, you need to think about writing for an audience. Here are some thoughts on work that's billed as "completely unprecedented"; following writing trends; and writing for "everyone from 0 to 99."

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Realistic Fiction in Today’s Market

Realistic Fiction in Today’s Market

Scanning the NYT bestseller list, you’ll see a multitude of realistic fiction books. Realistic fiction deals with life as it is now and modern problems that its protagonists may face. But what happens when reality, the very thing that gives realistic fiction its name, has inevitably changed?

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Low Writing Confidence and Ways to Shift Your Mindset

Low Writing Confidence and Ways to Shift Your Mindset

Struggling with writing confidence? You’re not alone. Lots of writers, including myself, experience self-doubt. Let’s look at some factors that may impact your writing confidence, and some suggested mindset shifts to help you work around the self-doubt.

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How to Blend Story Feedback Into Your Manuscript

How to Blend Story Feedback Into Your Manuscript

How do you blend story feedback into your manuscript? This can seem like an impossible task—maybe you’ve received feedback that requires major surgery on your story. Maybe you’ve received conflicting feedback from different sources. How do you even begin?

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Character Description in First Person

Character Description in First Person

Character description in first person narration is tricky. We usually don't talk about ourselves in terms of our physical attributes. But readers appreciate having something to imagine when they're reading your story--so how do you make it sound natural?

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Need Writing Inspiration? Try Adding Top Gun
Writing, Craft, Community Kristen Overman Writing, Craft, Community Kristen Overman

Need Writing Inspiration? Try Adding Top Gun

We’re all in need of a little writing inspiration right now. With all of the tumult in our lives, putting effort into creative projects seems both more important and more impossible. How can we mentally move beyond the walls that confine us to create new and interesting work? How can we find writing inspiration, talking to the same people every day in the same spaces?

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Character Reaction
Mary Kole Mary Kole

Character Reaction

I've taught extensively on the concept of interiority, which is fleshing out your character's inner life--thoughts, feelings, reactions, and inner struggle. We are talking about reactions today. Why are character reactions so important?

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How to Use a Critique Group

How to Use a Critique Group

To level up your writing, find a critique group. If you’re struggling to get past the first chapter, or you run out of interest midway through a project, a critique group could be essential. Getting feedback is invaluable, of course, but the benefits of joining a critique group don’t stop there.

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