I’ve seen a lot of beta reading questions around the internet, and they’re mostly bad. You don’t want to give the same set of questions to every beta reader. It’s best if you hand-select questions for each reader based on what you know about them. For instance, the questions you want to ask a casual […]
It’s incredibly difficult to find beta readers. It’s almost easier to find an editor, because the relationship is transactional. Money = reading + advice. But with a beta reader, you’re asking someone to commit 5 – 10 hours of their life to your brain and story. For free. That’s a huge commitment, and you have […]
I learned about Tertulia, the book recommendation app, from the New York Times article. So I decided to try it out. When I downloaded the app, it said there was a waiting list (uh, oh). But when I signed up, I immediately got an invite (although it went to my spam folder, so I didn’t […]
1. Present Tense This is the default tense of nearly all beginning writers. The trouble is that few established authors use it. It’s more of an exception than the rule. So when you write your book in present tense, it’s like you’re marking it with a giant stamp that screams to every agent, publishers, and […]
Writers can often feel burned out or directionless. Here are 5 podcasts for writers to help inspire, educate, entertain, and get them in the right mindset.
It doesn’t matter what you call it — flash fiction, sudden fiction, micro fiction, short-short — stories under 1000 words offer a quick zing of literary delight. But have you ever wondered whether anyone actually read your flash fiction piece you published online? This list gives you a good idea of how many eyeballs it reached by ranking the […]
I love podcasts for writers. Why? Because I can learn about my favorite author’s writing process while I’m folding towels, and get great advice about creating characters while commuting.
Writers hate the term genre. Readers love it. This is because genre creates expectations. Will these characters be able to fly, shapeshift, fall in love?
This is a parable of a writer named Austin, and how he found his audience through writing four novels. Austin lived near a major metropolis in the United States, was middle class, and he wanted more than anything to become a writer. He read all the right people, went to all the right conferences, and […]
What makes or breaks your novel is what exists before you write your first word: your central concept. The concept is so important. And yet it’s something that’s usually neglected when talking about writing craft. That’s because it’s much easier to talk about sentences, or plot, or characterization, or beginnings — or really anything else. […]
