Writers spend so much time on the beginning of the book and lose steam in the middle.  This is true of movies as well. Movies that fall flat in the middle fail. You have...

I think I did about two dozen edits of my manuscript. And then I had it reviewed by a developmental editor and we shook the whole thing up! Changing the starting point and ending...

Poetry is literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. Free form poetry gives the writer tremendous freedom to...

Showing is about using description and action to help the reader experience the story. Telling is when the author summarizes or uses exposition to simply tell the reader what’s happening. This was the hardest...

Readers want to feel like they know the person they are reading about. They need to be able to identify with them and put themselves in their shoes. A good way to make this connection...

Dialogue lets us put the reader into the story.  It’s easier to write, “he told me not to go.”  But what the reader really wants to hear is the entire dialogue that occurred, not...

Some people believe in writing from an outline. Getting all the parts down in bullet points and then building your story from there. I find it more natural to just sit down and write....

Being able to change the world starts with learning to tell your story. The most powerful part of a story is the first sentence. It must to grab the reader and pull them in,...