Writing Tips

By Susan Stoker If you’re like me, you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, grab some coffee, head to your writer space, turn on your computer, and open your favorite social media account. What might’ve started as a great day quickly turns depressing when you see all the posts by other authors celebrating their […]

A couple of weeks ago, I shared some ideas about how we can stitch pieces of our story together after we make big revisions. As I mentioned, anytime we make a lot of changes to our story, we have to rip our story apart to fit in the new stuff, so we risk plot holes, missing

A few months ago, like a lot of you, I received the email stating Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) was going to be “merging” and taking over the print business from CreateSpace (CS). I’ve long been a customer of CS, and 99% of my interactions with them have been positive. So when I heard they were

How do you choose the best for you from so many publishing companies? When you write a book, the most difficult decision you will have to make is deciding on your best publishing option. You have a choice between traditional publishing, self-publishing or selecting from a range of vanity and assisted publishing services. For first time

“So, since your publishing team is always out there on the cutting edge, are you getting in on this thing called blockchain?” A phone call with a veteran journalist this week was the first time we’ve been asked about this technology—a red-hot topic at the moment because digital innovators are going crazy over a job

In the first post of my four-part series, I introduced ANTS, my framework for helping storytellers make strategic choices that increase reader engagement. ANTS stands for the effects a storyteller should seek to cultivate in their story: attachment, novelty, tension, and satisfaction. Last time, I covered the basics of attachment. Now it’s time for a closer look

By Susan Haught Have you ever watched a child blow bubbles with a little wand and a bottle of soapy water? Perhaps you’ve taken a turn yourself. If you have, you’ll know there’s something magical about bubbles. When my son was little, we’d spend Easter with friends, and every year the Easter bunny would leave a

Did Ernest Hemingway ever advise, write drunk edit sober? Probably not. But it has become one of the most popular fixed expressions for new writers. If you have just started writing or you are attending writing classes, you must have heard the expression. On social media, writers have used the phrase thousands of times. Yet