By Aaron Gansky @ADGansky Charles Baxter, in Burning Down the House, Essays on Fiction, devotes an entire chapter to a principle he calls “Stillness.” To paraphrase a rather lengthy and well documented argument, he proposes that stillness, a moment in fiction where action subsides and characters/narrators focus on the minutiae of their…

by Cindy Sproles @CindyDevoted I opened the manuscript and began to read. Nice description, story seemed interesting but two chapters in, I still knew nothing about the protagonist. What happened? The writer had laid some good building blocks, but what happened to the protagonist. The best way I can explain…

By Tammy Karasek @tickledpinktam Writing conferences are in full swing already this year and the last few weeks we saw at least two conferences spoken about throughout social media. With classes of all the writerly kind, encouraging keynotes, the agent/publisher/editor appointments to give us homework, we need to remember to…

By W. Terry Whalin @terrywhalin It’s no secret in the publishing community but an important truth: editors and literary agents are reading their submissions and looking for people who have been published (have experience) so they can publish them again. This age old practice seems unfair to new writers who have…

by Katherine Hutchinson-Hayes, Ed.D. @khutch0767 As writers, we often find ourselves grappling with self-doubt, creative blocks, and the pressures of deadlines. The journey can feel overwhelming, yet there exists a powerful tool that can turn our struggles into triumphs: gratitude. Embracing gratitude enriches our personal lives and can transform our writing…

by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan Home, home in this gig Where the writers and publishers play Where seldom is heard An encouraging word And the skies are so cloudy all day Thanks, Linda Rondeau for letting me borrow/tweak the lyric. Yes, I've experienced discouragement in my writing journey. Maybe it was…