Should I Write Thrillers?

Back to Thriller Guide Do you love a brilliant hero trying to save the world before he’s blown to bits by the time bomb in his shorts? Then you should be writing thrillers. If you read a lot of them, you already know the tropes to use, the cliches to avoid, and the basic structures they follow. If you haven’t read many thrillers, and just think they might be a good way to make money, you should go read a bunch of them and then come back. You must be very familiar with, and even love, thrillers if you are...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Speculative Fiction — The Big “If” Umbrella

More and more, books and publications that were once exclusively science fiction or fantasy or horror are calling themselves “speculative fiction.” But what is speculative fiction and why does it matter? Though the term “speculative fiction” has been around for a long time, it really came into vogue within the last few decades. And whereas at its inception, it was purely a replacement term for science fiction, it has come to mean most any genre that falls into the category that I call the “What If?” genres. These genres ask the “what if?” questions, where the supposition is definitely not...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

20BooksVegas 2022

I had to take a break from working on the site to finish up my book due on Dec. 31. But I’m back now, in Vegas for the 20BooksVegas conference. If you haven’t heard of this conference, you should. It’s entirely focused on the business of independent publishing. vendors, panels, presentations—the amount of information disseminated during this conference is astounding. It’s a little expensive, but it is well worth the money. A lot of the vendors there are featured on this site, as well. I stopped at the Vellum table and looked at all the beautiful books that had been …

A Guide to Keyboards

The first rule of keyboards is that you like what you like. Some professional writers like the cheapest keyboards they can find, mushy things with keys that feel like lopsided marshmallows. Others (that’s me), love a nice clicky mechanical keyboard. The feedback, the crisp actuation, and the myriad of choices insure that you can get exactly what you like.  So if everyone just likes what they like, why am I writing about it?  Because most people have no idea what their options are, so they don’t even know what they like. You may think you like your keyboard and its...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Food for Thought?

We talk a lot about how to write better and the tools you need to do that, but we don’t talk a lot about the main tool you use when writing: Your brain. Writing is entirely a cerebral activity. Without a healthy brain, it is very difficult to write. So, how do you keep your brain healthy. The answers probably won’t surprise you, but they do bear repeating. Water is Life Staying hydrated is probably the biggest key to keeping your brain in a good place for creating. And you have to hydrate before you get thirsty. The brain is...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Writing That Resonates

Resonate. It’s the word I use most often when talking about writing. But what does it really mean? Take the word home. The dictionary definition is “The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.” But that’s not what anyone thinks when they hear the word. They think of their home. What it looks like, what it sounds and smells like, how it feels to be there. They think of the people who occupy it and the often complex emotions they engender. They think about history and family and legacy and…well, you get the...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

What to Do When the Writing Won’t Work

Sometimes the writing just won’t work. The words won’t come, or they’re all wrong when they do. Even if you manage to type something, you delete it seconds later. You’re blocked. We’ve all been there. Don’t panic. It will come back. Meanwhile, I have some ideas to get it back sooner rather than later. Though it’s important to match the techniques with what you’re trying to write and where you are in the process — you’re going to need different techniques when you’re starting a short story than when you’re in the middle of a novel — no matter where...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Using Short Stories to Grow Your Business

You’re probably not going to make a lot of money writing short stories. Not by directly selling them, anyway. But they are quite useful in a number of other ways, and if used—and written—well, they can help grow your writing business. Reader Magnets A lead magnet is a sales term for something you give away to get contact details so you sell to the person later. When that thing is a piece of writing, we call it a reader magnet. Why is it so important to gather contact details? So you can have an email list to send your newsletter...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Grammar and Critique

Before putting pen to paper or fingertip to keyboard, there are some basic writing fundamentals we have to discuss. I will try to get through them as swiftly as possible, but they can’t be ignored. Grammar is important ​Before you can write, you have to make sure you can write. If you can’t construct a decent sentence, it doesn’t matter how great your story is, it’s going to be hard to get it across. Though you don’t have to follow the rules of grammar—most writers break them with wild abandon—you have to know them. And more importantly, you have to know...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here

Point of View and Tense

Point of view (POV) and tense work together in a way to create different levels of story scope and reader engagement, often by sacrificing one for the other. Choosing which to use can be more art than science and you may feel that personal preference and ease of use trumps either of those. However, as you learn more about these two essential properties of writing and how they interact with each other, you’ll see how picking the right ones can help take your writing to the next level. POV One of the most important decisions you make when writing is...

This content is for members only.
Join Now
Already a member? Log in here