Can You Succinctly Pitch? by Alan Baxter

Guest blogger: Alan Baxter suc·cinct –adjective 1. expressed in few words; concise; terse. 2. characterized by conciseness or verbal brevity. 3. compressed into a small area, scope, or compass. As writers we always try to be as brief and succinct in our writing as possible, while maintaining a clear voice and interesting, beautiful prose. It’s the eternal difficulty of not…

Confessions of a Wily Newb, Part 3, by Paris Crenshaw

Guest blogger: Paris Crenshaw (Go back and read Lesson #2) Lesson 3: Finish something! For me, this was probably the most difficult lesson to learn. Again, we’re back to the basic principle that writers actually do write. No one is going to buy or publish half of a story, so when you’re starting down the scrivener’s path, you need to…

Write with Intent

by Angel Leigh McCoy No two writers are alike, nor are any two writing careers. If you’re interested in building a career as a writer, then learning how to write with intent will take you there. No matter what kind of writing you want to do (journalism, fiction, games, freelance, corporate, comic, etc.), you will advance more quickly if you…

Why Obey Submission Guidelines?

The short answer to that question is: because if you don't, the publisher or agent will reject your submission. It's a harsh reality, but the truth of the matter is that anyone going through a slush pile latches on to whatever they can find wrong. The sooner they can reject a submission, the sooner they can get on to the…

Confessions of a Wily Newb, Part 2, by Paris Crenshaw

Guest blogger: Paris Crenshaw (Go back and read Lesson #1) Lesson 2: Don’t be intimidated by successful writers. Learn from them. One of the greatest things about writing is the sense of community that we share. Unlike most any other group out there, professional writers do not seem as threatened by the success of other writers. As a result, even…

This Versus That and Then Versus Now

I recently took a close look at the question of when to use "this" and when to use "that" in fiction. A great deal of confusion surrounds this question, and I've been advised by numerous people that I'm doing it wrong. I respectfully disagree. We learn in grade school that "this" is nearby, and "that" is farther away (distance being…