What is a writing warm-up, you may ask? Easy. Similar to any other warm-up, it’s a free-write. A word vomit. It works the writing muscle to keep it strong.
Category: Writing Fundamentals
Passive Voice: What NOT to fix in your story
Did you know there are times you should KEEP passive voice in your novel, writers? Here’s how to tell the difference between what you should fix or leave be.
Connotations and Denotations: Powerful story tools
Almost any word you use will have a connotation and a denotation. A lot of those words may have several. Most of the time, you don’t have to overthink it. Exploring this aspect of wordplay is a game, an exciting challenge.
Important Terms Every Poet Should Know: Poetry and Prose
Over the month of April, we’ll be posting a lot about poetry here on the blog, including this series on Important Terms Every Poet Should Know. We’re going to start our conversation by defining two of the most important words of the genre: Poetry and Prose.
Common Grammar Mistakes & How to Avoid Them (Part 1)
Happy National Grammar Day! We thought we’d celebrate by sifting through some common grammar mistakes in order to avoid them in future projects. A writer who possesses good grammar has a leg up when it’s time to edit.
Primary Conflict: How to create the right conflict
Most stories in any genre are going to have a good amount of conflict. Actually, any novel I’ve ever read has several types of conflict, one following another, all tumbling like dominoes until the big finish. But your primary conflict is the most important.
Moms Who Write on Patreon: Resources, support, perks & more!
We’ve been planning for months and trying to figure out how to formalize some of the things we’ve been doing in our group for the past year. Our community is incredibly supportive, growing larger by the day. But we wanted to provide our members more. Enter: Moms Who Write on Patreon!
How to write captivating fictional characters
Writing fictional characters is my favorite thing. Yeah, sure, the plot and the world-building. But the characters! They make the story for me. Their realness and relatability can take a book to the next level.
Writing Blurbs (Part 3): Progression
Blurbing, dear friends, is the art of condensing. We’ve talked about what a blurb is and discussed its essential elements. We dove into how to streamline a blurb and build emotional momentum by limiting proper nouns and decluttering our details. What’s left is to discuss is writing blurbs that progress —how to take those minimal details…
Writing Blurbs (Part 2): Limiting Details
In the previous post of this series, I emphasized limiting details when writing blurbs. But why do that—and how? How does an author narrow down exactly what to mention, and what to exclude? Limit or eliminate place names The most obvious reason for this is to avoid visual clutter. Especially in fantasy or historical fiction,…