fiction writing

Writing Fiction: Pitfalls And Tips For Naming Your Characters

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Do you enjoy finding names for your characters when you’re writing fiction? Many authors don’t. Moreover, naming your characters has pitfalls. In one writers’ group meeting, an author told us about her cousin, who also writes fiction. They were chatting about character names. The cousin admitted that she’d never bothered checking her names with Google … Read more

Want To Write A Novel? These Tips May Help If You’re Stressed

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With NaNoWriMo on the horizon, and coming up fast, you’re remembering your dream: to write a novel. Last month our group discussed NaNoWriMo and stress. Our writers’ group includes authors who’ve been traditionally published, as well as self-publishing authors. It also includes aspiring authors who want to write, and would, if the whole idea of … Read more

Editing Fiction: 3 Tips To Help Your Story To Flow

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Worried about editing fiction? In one recent meeting of our writers’ group, several members were struggling with editing their novels. A big challenge when editing is story flow. That is, avoiding lumps and bumps which stop the reader. It’s vital to avoid bumps on a micro level, when the reader has a “huh?” moment because … Read more

Writing Fiction: Should You Only “Write What You Know?”

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In a recent writers’ group meeting, we discussed writing fiction and the value (or otherwise) of the writing dictum: “write what you know”. A new member, who’s a new author, posed a question. She’s writing an American Civil War novel, inspired by Gone With The Wind… and a family diary. “Does that mean,” she asked, … Read more

Use Short Stories And Novellas To Boost Your Self-Publishing Sales

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Use Short Stories And Novellas To Boost Your Self-Publishing Sales

In a recent writers’ group meeting, we talked about short stories and novellas. Several authors in the group regularly write and publish short fiction. Most published just one story a month, but several published more. The most prolific author published eight short stories each month (!), while publishing a new novel every six months. But… … Read more

NaNoWriMo: How Important Is Setting In Your Novel?

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“Who’s doing NaNoWriMo this year?” (A question at our writers’ group meeting.) It’s that time of year again. November and NaNoWriMo loom large. Will you participate? BTW: no matter when you’re reading this, you can use these tips to improve your fiction… Whether you’re joining in or not, if you’re an author, you worry about … Read more