Writing is like cooking: You are the chef, your words are the ingredients, and your hands are the utensils. If you’re making a new dish, you need a recipe. If you don’t have the recipe, you can’t cook. When it comes to writing, outlining is the recipe that brings everything together. For pantsers, ideas come quickly and they write them as they come. It works out fine in the beginning,...

If you tell someone you’re writing a novel, I’d stake my fiddle leaf fig tree that you’ve heard one of the following statements: “Oh, I’m writing a novel too.” “I started writing mine five years ago…” “I know someone writing a novel. My (mom, uncle, friend, dog, ad nauseum…)…” You hear these less often: “I finished my first draft last week.” “I’ve been getting really productive feedback from my beta...

Many budding authors tend to be rather protective. While it’s natural for writers to worry about harsh criticism or whether anyone will like what they’ve written, I decided I needed to let go of that fear. After all, how am I to ever publish if I don’t let anyone read what I’ve written? Earlier this year I took a leap and signed up for a writing class. The class was...

After taking a break for five years to pursue my career in journalism,  I finally found my way back to creative writing. Although I hoped my writing would have naturally improved, I didn’t expect to be told by an editor pal that my writing style had changed. It turns out that while I was immersing myself in the world of nonfiction, I was picking up tools that have benefited my fiction...

The good guys get all the attention. You spend pages developing your hero’s back story and personality but fail to give the ol’ bad guy the same love. What’s a good story without a kick-ass villain? A shallow one. From Dracula to Hannibal Lecter and a legion of others, villains are iconic. Here’s how to end favoritism and craft a juicy villain of substance: one readers can sink their teeth...

Have you ever had a story idea – one that comes out of the blue but is seemingly genius – just to realize that after all the plotting, exhausting writing sessions, and hurried word sprints that someone’s already beat you to it? We understand how it feels, Scribblers: the initial panic, the feeling of hopelessness, the realization that your original idea wasn’t as original as you’d thought. Before you trash...

In March of my freshman year, a realization crept upon me with a dread similar to a plague of due dates: I had not written, really, in four months. I vowed to myself that when I started college, I wouldn’t lose writing. In high school, I was known as the girl who cranked out novels. I’d type a few sentences on my iPhone 4 during passing period; I’d hide in...