Make an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

If you have a blog, then you need an editorial calendar.  Sure, it’s good to leave a little room for flexibility and spontaneity and you could even get away with winging it for a while.  Sooner or later, though, if you want your blog to be an effective part of your author platform, you need… Read more »

7 Steps to a Better Blog

This past weekend, I had to do something that pained me at my very core: I decided to remove blogs from my Google Reader.  I realized I had been following so many blogs that I had no chance of actually reading them all (the number was upwards of one thousand, I think).  For some time,… Read more »

Why Writers Need Social Media

Some writers embraced it from the beginning.  Others of us have been skeptical, but we can’t fight it anymore.  Like it or not, social media has become firmly entrenched in the lives of writers, and it’s here to stay. It can be an overwhelming proposition to jump into social media or try out a new… Read more »

Prompt: Make a Submission Schedule

This week we’ve discussed how to submit your work.  While we’ve focused on submitting to literary magazines and online literary markets, many of the same ideas also apply when querying agents.  Today’s prompt works equally well, whether you’re a writer of short fiction or poetry and looking for markets for your work, or if you’re… Read more »

How to Submit to Literary Magazines

While I was in grad school for my MFA, I spent the first year working on campus literary magazine.  For the staff, the primary responsibility was to read submissions and decide what went in the magazine.  That year, I learned a lot about submitting work to literary magazines, and applied what I learned when submitting… Read more »

How to Find the Right Home for Your Work

Publishing is a subjective business.  It’s easy to forget this.  Writers often get so caught up in fear or rejection that they avoid submitting work altogether.  This is understandable, of course.  It’s much less frightening to tinker with one’s work until it’s perfectthan it is to send the work out into the world.  It’s a… Read more »

How to Use Color Theory to Boost Your Writing

As you might have noticed, I’m really into design.  A graphic designer and product manager in a past life, you could say I’m a little bit obsessed with clean lines and balanced designs.  I love problem-solving so that form and function work together seamlessly.  One of the areas that most fascinates me in design is… Read more »

Set the Mood for Your Story With a Mood Collage

Remember back in grade school when we used to cut up magazines and glue the pictures on a board to make beautiful artwork?  Believe it or not, collaging is a great way for writers to explore and express the mood of their project. I learned the benefits of this technique when I was in design… Read more »

Prompt: Make A Writer’s Block Survival Kit

  Sometimes writer’s block is inevitable.  Suddenly–without even knowing how–you hit the wall and there’s nothing to do but try to break your way through it.  So what do in that situation?  Do you just sit and wallow in your inability to write? The secret to getting through writer’s block is write your way through… Read more »