I was published completely by accident, it never should have happened.  At the time, writing was not my full-time job (although it was part of it) and I had never considered publishing anything I had written. I was working as a grief counselor and managed multiple real-world support groups along with several online ones. …

One of the things I teach other writers and chant in my own head is this:  write for yourself.  Tell the story you want to tell – the one you want to read.  Writing something that fits current best seller trends or might have mass market appeal may, in the end, stifle your creativity and…

  The very first writing class I took, the very first assignment, the very first thing I ever had to read aloud – was why do you write?  I decided then that this tale is all pretty dull and only matters to the writer, but it’s worth writing down.  It’s worth revisiting every-so-often.  It’s worth…

  Whether you write fiction, poetry, or memoir, it all has a piece of your story in it.  Maybe the question becomes:  how well is it hidden?  Last week we talked about zines and how they can include all sorts of writing.  This week, we’ll start out talking about a sub-category of the zine genre,…

Because I write cross-genre, I did promise to cover things other than just fiction.  Today we’ll segue into self-publishing in the form of a zine.  It may be a word you’ve heard before as it can be traced back to Ben Franklin, but zines gained popularity in the 1930s and 40s with the science fiction…

We all hear write what you know.  Some of us argue the point for multiple reasons – we’re not interesting enough, we’ll never learn anything new, writing is all about imagination.  (You can tell that I’ve had this chat with myself on multiple occasions.) But it’s true. The best characters contain a piece of the…

  First, let’s start with a quick lesson in language so that we’re all on the same page.  I made an assumption about the word, exposition.  I thought (and honestly, most literary books and websites) define it as a device used to introduce background information about events, settings, characters, etc., to your readers.  The word…

  According to literary agent and author, Donald Maass, the majority of rejected manuscripts (80%) have one thing in common:  lack of conflict.  There should be conflict everywhere – in exposition, in dialogue – every sentence in your story should be building to that climax.  Everything you do needs to complicate your main character’s journey….

Let’s get started! We want to read about characters that we like, characters we can cheer on.  That’s not to say they can’t be flawed or troubled – to me, I like characters where I see a piece of myself.  I don’t want them perfect.  This likability begins on page one of your novel.  The…

In November, lots of fiction writers do a crazy thing – we write a novel in thirty days.  National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has gone from a small group of people in Oakland, California to an international extravaganza.  In the Racine/Kenosha area, we meet and cheer each other on throughout the month, many of us…