What does it mean when you get feedback on your writing or advice to “show don’t tell”? I get this question a lot but didn’t have a clear answer until now. It’s hard to teach without showing exactly how to do it with writing examples… but I actually came up with three great tricks recently
I saw this infographic today, about the Six Types of Writers. Great, I thought – I like cute and fun online Facebook tests about writers that momentarily distract me from the challenges of writing. I was asked, “Which one are you,” so I searched. Here’s the problem, these aren’t the six types of writers. These
This is usually where I’d post a roundup of the best (FREE to enter) writing contests. But I’ve decided not to, because even though they’re great for traffic, there are several sites that have already put lists like that together – I’ll link to those at the end of this post. So, why write anything
Real quick: Medium is a side-project by Twitter CEO that’s mostly unmonetized but gets a crazy amount of traffic; making it one of the biggest content sites on the internet. You *can* get paid by views under certain conditions and *some* writers are making real money ($1000~$10,000 a month) but it’s not easy to do
There are some rumblings this week as Kindle announced a new program for authors called Kindle Vella; basically a short, serialized place for content that’s separate from the main Kindle store and runs more like a smartphone app. Several companies have tried to pull this off, (“Radish” is the most successful one) but Amazon...
There’s a revolution happening in literature: writers are going short. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve already heard of flash fiction, those tiny, compressed stories flourishing in the literary underground. Writers and readers are falling in love with the form and discovering something delightful and poignant in these small spaces...
The literary world has opened its gates to a flood of indie authors, thanks to platforms that allow them to self-publish with ease. While this democratization of publishing is overwhelmingly positive, it also means there’s a deluge of books out there that, perhaps, didn’t go through the rigorous editing process traditional...
When I wrote my huge guide to book writing (Book Craft) I cut out all the nonfiction tips and strategies last minute; I’d already explored a bunch of material in my writing courses but wasn’t quite ready to share the nonfiction resources. Mainly, because, while I’m proud of the detailed 24 chapter novel outlining templates...
For years authors have been hoping for something that makes book formatting easier. Vellum is a great solution for Mac users but there’s never been anything comparable to it for PC users, who have to rely on buggy formatting with MS Word, a steeper learning curve with InDesign, or some functional but limited online book
This evening I realized I’m (now over) 100K in lifetime book sales, so I set up an “ask me anything” thread on Reddit’s largest writing group. I was nervous, because Redditors can be hostile, but having frequented the site more recently, I knew a LOT of writers were struggling with some pretty basic, common writing
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius Throughout history, we’ve witnessed stories of individuals who’ve gone to extremes in their pursuits, teetering on the edge of genius and madness. The road to greatness is often paved with obstacles, rejections, and failures. So, when should...
There’s a financial war going on. Some peeps on Reddit took smart bets against Wall Street positions, which were severely over leveraged – assuming big companies would fail or shut down during the Pandemic. They realized if they pushed the stock up, the hedge funds would be forced to compete or buy at high prices
