Hi. My name is Amy Atwell. I am a teller of stories. You might have seen Part 1 of this blog two weeks ago, where I discussed my journey to publication and my realization that while the format of books may change, the concept of story remains the same. That realization had a big impact [...]

I have been toying with the concept of “who is my readership” and where do I find them? You might believe that once you come to “The End” and congratulate yourself for a job well done, your next task is merely to find an agent, publisher or venue to capture your words between the covers. [...]

When I learned that the first RWA-WF critique training would take place during my son’s season-ending baseball tournament in Orlando, Florida, I considered waiting until the next one came along to participate. However, as the emails to join the training kept arriving in my inbox, I decided to carve out some “me” time during our [...]

“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.” –Ursula K. LeGuin I write alone. I sit at a very messy, old wooden desk that I inherited from a surveying concern in Perth, Ontario, and I write. [...]

Finish the damn book. You’ve all heard that phrase, right? I bet among the members of this chapter, we could compile a million words from unfinished stories. Shoot…I could probably scrap together two hundred thousand all by myself! But I find myself facing an interesting situation and wondered if I’m weird—wait, I mean unique, if [...]

Last month, we discussed how I see POV by levels, each one on a little deeper level than the previous. If you missed that post, you might want to go back and read what I said before going on. This month, let’s talk about getting into the character’s head, actually becoming your character. In some [...]

It’s midnight before Easter as I write this. That’s probably cheating for a blog due on Monday but, unfortunately, the days all run together and if I hadn’t had this on my calendar, I would have completely forgotten I had it coming due. Today was one of those days that quite simply did not stop. [...]

Hi RWA-WF World! I’m Cynthia D’Alba and I’ll be here every fourth Monday of the month. Remember that anything I write during my blogging time is my opinion. Feel free to point out the errors of my ways. This month and next, I’m tackling one of the hardest concepts for new writers to grasp – [...]

CORRECTION, in Joyce’s blog dated January 29, 2010 , WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE STUCK ON PLOTTING, Donald Maass should be credited as the author of WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL and the material quoted from it: “What is one thing that the protagonist would never do?” Blog contributor, Joyce Wells, apologizes for the mixup, [...]

After I volunteered to write on the subject of plotting, I wondered whatever made me think I could write anything useful about the subject. Then I took a few deep breaths and realized that I’d finished eight novel manuscripts, published two, and taught Fundamentals of Fiction for Writers Digest Online Workshops for nine years. Okay, [...]