By Ian Acheson Contest season is very much upon us and the majority of my fiction reading for the next six months will be consumed by judging entries in various competitions both local and abroad. One of the reasons I especially love judging is I get “forced” to read stories that I wouldn’t normally read. I typically judge speculative fiction …
Audiences and Communities
By Glynn Young Do you write for an audience? I don’t. Most of my career in communications focused on writing for an audience. It might be people listening to a speech; it might be people reading a magazine article or a newspaper story. The audience might be people (sometimes angry) assembled for a town hall meeting. Or company employees. The …
The Reluctant Blogger
By JPC Allen Last summer as I prepared for my first ACFW conference, I couldn’t have been more depressed about my chances of finding an agent. I had registered for the conference with high hopes because I was a semi-finalist in the YA category of the 2016 Genesis contest. Then I did my research and discovered the 21st century definition …
Brave the Blizzard
By Chandra Smith I write this post on March 14, and, here in south central Pennsylvania, we have a blizzard. One of my critique partners suggested this storm is my fault because last week I put the finishing touches on a novella where the bleak moments take place during a blizzard. Perhaps I should go outside and act out parts …
Eureka! Finding Gold in Research
By Michelle Shocklee Writing historical fiction is a lot like digging for gold. No matter the era and setting an author chooses, enormous mountains of historical data loom over us, daring us to find those interesting nuggets and minute details that make a book sing. The task can seem daunting, discouraging, and downright impossible at times. We know there is …
Tackling the Small Stuff
By Sarah Hamaker I’m a details person, which translated well into my chosen profession of writer and editor. I notice things like misplaced commas, wrong usage of apostrophes (don’t get me started on how years can’t be possessive!) and subject/verb disagreement. It used to drive me crazy when I encountered grammatical or word choice mistakes in the real world, like …
Spring Cleaning…erasing some old lessons!
By Dana Mentink I’ve got a very weird job, I’ll admit it. Oh not the teaching gig (I teach third grade) though that can be strange at times too. Recently I went to school dressed as a green crayon, but that’s a whole other blog post.) I meant the fiction writing thing. It’s funny to me how much of my …
Passive Voice
by Lynn Hobbs Years ago I began attending writing workshops. My first encounter with passive voice left me undecided. Did I care about passive voice? Was this merely someone’s preference in writing? What did it matter, anyway? Was this something I’d eventually learn through trial and error? It certainly didn’t interfere with the show don’t tell method of writing. Or …
Teacher Tools for the Writer: How to Use Google Forms to Make the Writing Life a Bit Easier
By Hannah Conway After eight years away from the classroom, I went back to teaching full-time. World History with Seventh Graders y’all! Pray for me. My Google searches went from “what does a bullet hole wound look like?” to “Middle school desk seating arrangements”. Now my searches are a strange mix of facts for fiction, and classroom info combined with …
Stand Alone Novel or Series?
By Ane Mulligan Are you writing a novel that’s part of a series or a stand-alone one? Let’s talk about series. Readers love series. While Jan Karon wrote eleven books in the Mitford series, the average stands at three or four. It’s hard to leave beloved characters behind after all the time you spent with them. I planned out my …