by Lynn Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn  People tend to assume if you’ve written a book that you must be creative in many other areas. The reality is while you may be creative with words, that doesn’t mean you have one ounce of skill with fabric, color, or that you have a clue how…

By Eva Marie Everson @EvaMarieEverson In the 1960s, Ivory soap produced a number of ads showing mother/daughter duos who looked so similar—or whose hands looked so young—the narrator tried to determine which was the mother and which was the daughter. Despite looking remarkably alike—and youthful—one, indeed was the mom and…

by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28 It matters the words we choose. Stir up or incite? Weaken or languish? Move or sway? When you consider which word to write next, do you also consider the power behind the word? How it sounds to the reader’s inner ear? What picture it portrays? You…

by Alycia W. Morales @AlyciaMorales Writing a manuscript is an exhilarating journey, but just because we've typed The End doesn't mean we're finished with our manuscript. Not. Even. Close. What comes next is rewriting. This is where we try to make our writing better. We fix our soggy middles. Deepen…

by Alycia W. Morales @AlyciaMorales Self-edits can be tricky. We get so close to our manuscripts that we begin to miss the flaws. Our eyes and our brains skim right over them. So how can we improve our writing before we submit it to a freelance editor for polishing or an…

by Bethany Jett, @betjett We’ve come to the last post in How to Get an Editor to Say Yes. We could fill a volume of books with editing tips and tricks, but today we’re going to focus on how to submit an article or story to an editor, for this is where…