Best Articles

Will Literary Agents Really Read Your Query Letter?

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I recently received an email from a concerned writer about a statement I’d made in one of my previous posts. This writer has allowed me to use the email for the purposes of this article. Here is an extract: I saw this on your blog and was disturbed by the implications to say the least: [...]

How to Flip Your Self-Doubts as a Writer

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Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.  ~Franz Kafka I’m incredibly passionate about writing. It’s something I feel I’m meant to do, whether I get published or not. In spite of that, there are still a good number of mental hurdles in this journey. If I’d known ahead of time [...]

23 Websites that Make Your Writing Stronger

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We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. ~Ernest Hemingway How strong is your writing? No matter how good you think it is, there’s always room for improvement. In most cases, plenty of room. Luckily, there are some amazing websites out there that’ll help you take your writing to [...]

Do You Mispronounce These Common Words?

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What’s your pet mispronunciation? I once had a school teacher who said hippo–crissy for hypocrisy, and polly-gammy for polygamy. I thought it was pretty funny. While hippo-crissy and polly-gammy are fairly extreme examples, most of us are less-than-perfect when it comes to speech. We swap letters, we slur, we substitute. I was recently looking through [...]

6 Ways to Hook Your Readers from the Very First Line

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Although I consider myself an avid reader, I must admit I have a short attention span when it comes to getting into books. If you fail to grab my attention in the first few lines, I start spacing out. Most readers are like me. Most people don’t want to spend the first 50 pages trying [...]

The #1 Reason You’ll Never Finish Writing Your Novel

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Feeling frustrated at how long it’s taking to write your novel–especially that all-important first draft? Some writers can bang out a novel in a manner of weeks, but for most of us, it’s a long and arduous task. If you find the process taking longer than you want, and you’re beginning to lose motivation to [...]

Do You Make This Unforgivable Writing Mistake?

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I wrote a short story some years ago–a story I thought was fantastic. It was funny. It was clever. It was sure to be snapped up by some literary magazine or another. Instead, I ended up submitting it to a magazine, only to have it promptly returned, covered with red marks. Boy, was I indignant. [...]

How to Steal a Plot for Your Book (and get away with it)

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Creating the full-fledged plot for a novel can be a difficult process. There are many elements you need to consider before you can be assured of its strength and readability. Maybe you have some great ideas, but you’re having trouble working them into the correct story structure. An easy way to know you’re on the [...]

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