by Jaym Gates and Joie Brown
The life of a freelancer isn’t all champagne and breakfast in bed. To make a living out of the bits and pieces of available contracting work requires a lot of juggling, steady nerves, and an organizational savvy that’s definitely bordering on the supernatural.
by Kate Heartfield In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was a dabbler in short fiction. I wrote about one story each year. I’d send that story out once, maybe twice if I felt cocky, and then I’d trunk it, figuring that a rejection or two meant a story was no good. Somehow, despite this method […]
by Aidan Doyle
The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time management system that has helped improve my writing productivity. The technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo and basically involves setting a timer for 25 minutes and focusing on a single task.
by Jason S. Ridler, PhD.
WARNING: This article will not end with me being rich and famous, having a bestseller or a million-dollar movie deal, or even being able to quit my day job. Nor will it instruct you on how to hit those targets. If those are your goals, please, go elsewhere.
by Amy Sundberg
When giving advice on writing blog posts, James Altucher says, “Bleed in the first line.” He talks about blog writing and bleeding a fair amount, actually, so I always think about bleeding when I write blog posts now. But what does that mean, bleeding on the page, and what is the correct way to do it?
by Mary Robinette Kowal
A lot of writers have a goal of being a full time writer. I think there’s this image of your life continuing exactly as it is, except that now your job is writing. Sure, you know you won’t go into an office, but it will be so nice to have no demands on your time, except writing.
It’s awards season. It comes around every year, and every year authors wonder whether they should put their work out for consideration.
This can be a scary thing.
by Randy Henderson
Happy New Year!
Rather than share events from my past year, I thought I’d offer a bit of encouragement and advice to help with the coming year. While this is aimed primarily at my fellow writers, it also, I think, can be applied to life in general.
Lots of people think, “I should learn a language,” or “I’m going to start exercising soon” … but then don’t actually take action. That’s because they haven’t really committed to getting started. In our minds, we half commit to things all the time.
by Nancy Fulda
If you write stories, this has probably happened to you:
The words are flowing. The plot is exciting. Your characters, faced with overwhelming odds, find themselves in the midst of a difficult and absolutely enthralling situation. It’s the Big, Dramatic Moment of your story – and you have no idea what happens next. The bad guys are too strong, the social pressures are too powerful, the pit is too deep, or your character is too broken. Try as you might, you can’t think of a single way to get your protagonist out of the current crisis.
A teen without a home. A dangerous residence. Can she survive one terrifying night to secure her future? Forced out on her eighteenth birthday, Charlene needs to stay overnight at a haunted Victorian mansion. Will she outsmart her supernatural foes?
Kate Heartfield is the author of Armed in Her Fashion and the two Alice Payne novellas, in addition to stories and games. She has been shortlisted for the Nebula awards twice for game writing and once for novella writing. She lives in Canada.
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