By Melanie Peffer Since my first book for the trade audience (the general book-reading audience available through regular book dealers), Biology Everywhere, many people have asked me questions about writing a book. They wanted to know about everything from my writing process to navigating self-publishing to my motivations to write in the first place.
Tag Archives: Writing Advice
Bah, Humbug!
By Katie Lewis Whether you personally celebrate it or not, Christmas is undeniably ubiquitous. The Halloween decorations come down, and the Christmas lights go up. Store speakers across the land pump out carols, new and old, and the sight of Santa Clause himself crops up everywhere. Though I know this post will go up afterContinue reading “Bah, Humbug!”
Emerging into The Light
Reorienting your perspective after spending a lot of time writing.
Believable Characters: The Commandments of Dramatis Personae
By Brian Kaufman You might already be scanning ahead to read my Ten Commandments. Don’t. This isn’t about what I think. It’s about prodding you to define how you think about your characters (and, by extension, your understanding of human nature).
Sticky Words, Slow Reading
Say goodbye to sticky situations that might slow your writing down.
Poetry Primer: Crafting And Editing
By Shelley Widhalm When I told one of my writer friends I was editing a poetry collection I assembled, he said, “I didn’t know you could edit poetry.” You sure can, but first, to get something to edit, let’s think of poem creation, capturing an experience, thought, or moment in tempo, color, sound, and movement.
The Paradox of Fiction
By Brian Kaufman Years ago, I came home from work to find my wife fussing in front of the refrigerator. I asked what was wrong, and she told me that the quart of milk she’d just purchased was missing. In cases like this, I’d learned to speak to my five-year-old daughter first. Tiger was oftenContinue reading “The Paradox of Fiction”
Calamity Is The Touchstone of A Brave Mind
By Katie Lewis That’s what my fortune cookie said when I cracked it open. Like most people, when we got fortune cookies, I was expecting to laugh. Maybe even twist the fortune with a certain prepositional phrase. Instead, a message sits on my desk, a daily reminder of how far I’ve come in the lastContinue reading “Calamity Is The Touchstone of A Brave Mind”
When Pants Ruin Everything.
By David E. Sharp Plotters or pantsers. Or plantsers. Writers tend toward one camp or another. Plotters create structured outlines and fill them in. Pantsers start with an idea and throw themselves into the thick of things, trusting the story to guide them to its natural conclusion. My colleague, Katie Lewis, added the additional categoryContinue reading “When Pants Ruin Everything.”
Inciting Incidents versus Triggering Incidents (And A Lot of In Between)
By Shelley Widhalm A novel can be structured in three or more acts or 15 beats (see Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!® – The Language of Storytelling). Or in some other forms, whether you story map or wing it. What I find confusing is the difference between inciting incidents and triggering incidents.
The Writing Bug 