How to Use Twitter Hashtags for Writers

Twitter continues to be the very best social network for the publishing industry. Whether you’re publishing traditional, self, indie, or hybrid, your people are here, both writers and other pros. But if you’re not using hashtags, you’re not fully engaged with this online community yet. Social media (emphasis on social) is like a cocktail party…. Read more »

#5onFri: Five Types of Non-Fiction Freelancers Should Master

As a freelance writer, I have written for and on behalf of celebrities, CEOs, public companies, private businesses, newspapers, print magazines, online publications, startups, and regular Janes and Joes. One day my writing was voicing a C-level recruitment agency’s, the next I wrote for an online publication for professionals. Being a Jill-of-All-Trades is an understatement,… Read more »

Exploring Essay Writing: An Interview With Jayne English

I love to read essays. In my job as reference librarian, I sneak titles of single author essay collections or essay anthologies into as many reader’s advisory (RA) recommendations as I can. However, most readers choose the fiction I offer over the essays. Nobody ever seems to willingly admit they read essays. Doesn’t inspire us… Read more »

Six Ways To Know You’re Writing For The Long Haul

Confession time: I hit some potholes in my writing life this past year. Last spring, the novel I worked on for years went out on submission and wasn’t picked up, so my agent shelved it. In the fall, my agent read the novel I slaved over for most of 2017 and found some serious issues… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Powerful Strategies to Build Writer’s Grit

The process of creative writing is a wonderful feeling. There’s the indescribable sense of flow when the words pour out oh-so-effortlessly, there’s that stroke of brilliance when a plot twist strikes out of nowhere, the feeling of creating something no one else has before. Every one of those feelings is motivating and rewarding and necessary… Read more »

Using a Siege Mentality to Write That Book

Writing a novel is a romance. Writing a novel is also a war. Thirteen years ago I was driving home with my beautiful new bride Becky on our way to, what would be our first home in Abilene, when I decided to mention the fact that I was going to change careers. “I think I want… Read more »

Plumbing the Depths of Fairy Tales: Baba Yaga

Fairy tales are a rich source of story ideas. A writer could retell a fairy tale straight, or with a fair amount of creative license to make the story a contemporary one. Some aspects of a fairy tale could be taken individually or in combination as inspiration for a story, or pieces of various fairy… Read more »

A Case Study on Isolation as a Literary Theme

Have you ever been isolated from others? You might be tempted to say “yes” if you’ve sequestered yourself during an illness or retreated to a favorite place to focus on writing or meditation. Isolation, however, isn’t the same as seclusion or solitude. It’s a state of aloneness in which you truly feel cut off from… Read more »