In independent (Indie) Publishing, the author is both creator and publisher. They maintain both power and profit. However, they must also take on the costs of design and production. This responsibility can be daunting, especially for new writers who may wish they had someone to help them make the right choices.  While it is essential to hire a professional editor and designer to help you create a quality book, there...

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...

At the age of sixteen, I wrote my first novel.  After powering through an entire month of NaNoWriMo and snagging my hard-earned “winner” badge, I realized that it wasn’t the badge that had brought me so much satisfaction. Instead, it was the feeling of holding my printed draft in my hands for the first time. In that moment, I was a writer. I never questioned whether or not I made...

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...

A fun game me and my fellow podcasting friends play involves yelling out a random phrase, then googling it. The goal is to find a podcast on that topic. I haven’t ever played a round where we couldn’t find an episode on some niche subject. Fireplaces, neurosurgery, fishing; you name it, there’s a podcast for it. Writing podcasts are one of my favorites of the niche community. I walk everywhere...

You can find endless stories about how a certain person may have been a muse for a particular artist, and how this muse inspired said artist to create extraordinary pieces of work. Many artists themselves believe in the muse as something that  fills their head with enlightened ideas that – poof – become extraordinary pieces of work. And if ideas vanish, artists will claim their muse died or left them, leaving...

Welcome to your class on creating original fantastical creatures. Before we begin, it’s important to acknowledge that there’s no one correct method of world building. You may also have varying levels of reality in your new world. Or you may not be a fantasy writer at all. Not to worry, this creative writing exercise will still stretch your skills.  As an ocean science educator, I am going to teach you...