How to Build Mood with Genre, POV
In a post on the Write Practice blog, Joslyn Chase offers advice for creating atmosphere in your writing. "There are many literary devices and...
Noir and SF: A Complimentary Pairing
Classic examples of SF/mystery mashups include Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its resulting film adaptation, Bladerunner, as well as...
You Can Train Yourself To Be A Writer
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Writing doesn't have to be hard and it shouldn't be a misery, but that doesn't mean you...
7 Ways to Let Your Supporting Cast Shine (But Not Too Brightly)
In a guest post on Well-Storied, writer Cady Hammer shares how she developed the secondary characters in her fantasy novel Chasing War. Hammer suggests...
Paula Hawkins: Mysteries Can Be More Than Black and White
Some of our favorite novels have ambiguous endings, or fail to wrap up events in the tidiest manner. Tana French's debut novel, In the...
Of Course, I Didn’t Listen
During an interview with the Write the Book podcast, author Gary Miller (There's No Way to Do It Wrong!: How to Get Young Learners...
To Angst or Not to Angst?
In the newest edition of their podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts examine the fourth element of the M.I.C.E. (Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event) Quotient:...
The Rules of Magic Realism
A headline on Electric Lit promises a "master class on magic realism" and the lengthy article by Marie-Helene Bertino delivers. Bertino eschews definitions and...
Don’t Send Your Readers Up the Down Staircase
Outside the Harry Potter novels, writers need to avoid creating rooms and buildings with interiors that couldn't possibly exist. In a post on Writer...
How to Use Plot Twists to Keep Readers Guessing
You don't need to write mystery novels or thrillers to leverage a good old-fashioned plot twist to throw your characters and readers off-course. And...
