Recently, fellow authors asked me for details about the now 19-month promo campaign for my vampire novel Fiona's Guardians. They saw me reading while masked at author events, they saw photos of my book in the hands of various booksellers, and there was something about a theater company adapting my novel. Some thought whatever I’m doing might work for them. What follows assumes you will view promotion as a…

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We’re ready for an in-person writers conference. Are you?

NOTE: Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the first day of the conference will be required from all attendees, volunteers, presenters and book sellers. Masks optional.

Remember how fun Let’s Just Write!…

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I think we writers often look ahead and think _______________________ (fill in the blank from Column A below) when I _______________________ (fill in the blank Column B below).

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Published with permission from Jerry Jenkins.

There’s no way around it. You need a book outline if you’re writing nonfiction.

For a novel, if you’re a Pantser (one who writes by the seat of your pants—like I do) as opposed to an Outliner, you can get away with having…

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Before 2020, I’d always scoffed at folks who diligently signed up every November to pound out a new novel. I mean, I was a writer. It wasn’t a hard job, not like piloting a plane or curing cancer. All it required was putting my butt in the chair, turning on…

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What's more motivating than being in the company of other writers? Make that happen with these 10 writerly things:

1. Let's Just Write! An Uncommon Writers Conference brought to you by Chicago Writers Association
A two-day, in-person conference in the heart of Chicago's Mag Mile. Twenty-plus presenters, workshops,…

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There are two camps on editing as you go, no middle ground. The "don't" camp is way bigger, and more adamant than the "do" camp. I wonder, do we have control over that impulse?

I've done it both ways. When I wrote my first book I edited as I wrote,…

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Reprinted with permission from The Creative Penn.

I have stumbled through to the end of my story, and now I sit at the end of the first draft of the first novel. So how does it feel?

I'm proud to have over 70,000 words of a coherent story…

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• Dorothy Parker: If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.

• Stephen…

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Reprinted with permission Tim Storm

Almost every writing rule you can think of has exceptions. Why? And if breaking writing rules is possible, why pay any attention to them?

The Case of the Effective Deus Ex Machina

Earlier this year, I read a book called Fifteen Dogs. The…

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