Melanie Marttila

Mythic Storytelling: Tarot for Writers, Part 3

Greetings, my lovely Speculators! I hope you’re keeping safe and well in these remarkable times. I also hope you’ve enjoyed this miniseries on the tarot for writers so far. To recap, in Part 1, I offered a brief introduction to the tarot, in Part 2, I reviewed five books on the tarot for writers, and… Read more »

Pamela Gay

#5onFri: Five Ways to Write About Something Difficult

Writing about something difficult is, well, difficult—at first. You can’t process something emotionally charged all at once any more than you can write anything from start to finish in one fell swoop. I recommend you JustWrite before you start drafting. Think of this writing as a kind of warm-up that will help you discover what… Read more »

Tammy Lough

Internet Dating 101

Don’t you love how it feels when it’s time to create the first chapter of a new romance novel? The mandatory, behind the pages grunt work is complete and your fingertips hover, ready to tap-tap-tap across the keyboard. You are stoked and imagine the keys ablaze with flames of creativity. WOO HOO, life is good…. Read more »

Jeanette Smith

Should I Trust Editing Software?

Editing is often cited as the most difficult part of the writing process. Having taken our unique ideas and formed them into sentences, how do we now evaluate the result and determine what’s good from what needs changing? Some changes will be obvious—usually from the squiggly red line underneath it. That’s right. Today we’re talking… Read more »

Savannah Cordova

#5onFri: Five Signs Your Book’s Structure Needs Work

Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser at heart, you probably recognize that an unwieldy, unclear, or unstable structure can be a death sentence for your novel. Even if you’re writing a book defined by its quirky characters or experimental style, most readers simply won’t have the patience to get through it unless the structure… Read more »