#5onFri: Five Tips for a Successful Author Collaboration

Collaborating with one or more co-authors offers unique challenges and pleasures. On the face of it, it looks like doubly—or triply—hard work: you have two or more egos to manage and motivate, potential disagreements about creative direction and weight-pulling, and a more laborious process to get ideas agreed and edits approved. And yet… When it… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Networking Tips for Freelance Writers

Work and income don’t come easy to writers as it is, even more so when the fate of your career is in your own hands. While freelance writing has many perks (making your own hours, choosing your own assignments, working in your PJs), it also has many obstacles. One of these is networking. How do… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Reasons New Writers Should Keep Writing

Fledgling writers often face a unique struggle, which unfortunately scares many away. Learning how to work on the myriad areas of craft, figuring out what to write about, writing and sending out pitches, receiving numerous rejections, and maintaining both confidence and stamina makes for a very trying environment. Though it can feel like you’re alone… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Famously Rewritten Novels

Editing is a natural and necessary part of the writing process. But many writers dread revising their work. They’re exhausted from writing the first draft and the thought of changing or deleting words terrifies them. Bestselling books don’t get that way by accident. Rounds of careful revisions are what makes writing shine. Take a page… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Ways to Craft Strong Female Characters

Strong female characters have been all the rage the last several years, and it’s been great seeing girls kick some serious behind. But girls don’t have to swing a sword or beat the villain to a pulp with their bare hands in order to be strong. There are many kinds of strength and many kinds… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Steps to Create Agency in Your Writing Life

As with any creative endeavor, there is a certain amount of inspiration that needs to happen in your writing: the beautiful melding of your varied experiences turned into something new and wonderful, yet familiar and accessible. The problem comes when you, as a writer, think that work can only be done when you have that… Read more »

#5onFri: Discover These Five Awesome Greek Writers!

Greek Independence Day is right around the corner! The ancient Greeks are well known for their contributions to our society, but Greeks of the modern age have their own accomplishments to celebrate. Not only did they win their independence from the Ottoman Empire and make the Nazis’ stay in Greece seriously unpleasant, but they’ve also… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Tips for Writing Fearlessly

Fearless writing is impactful. It forces the audience to encounter characters, situations, or outcomes that they may not be entirely comfortable with—and that’s a wonderful thing. It sounds easy enough to write fearlessly, and indeed it is—right up until someone starts reading your work. I never considered what my grandmother might think about my gruesome… Read more »

#5onFri: Five New Nonfiction Books to Inspire a Long Journey

It’s necessary for a writer to get out and view the world through new perspectives. Sometimes that means observing the regulars at your usual coffee shop or talking to folks in a different part of town, and sometimes it means undertaking something more substantial, something long enough to get lost in. A long journey can… Read more »