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Featuring everything new and experienced authors need to develop creative and technical skills. Check out writing development articles, our Word of the Day, writing prompts, anthology opportunities and more!

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Setting "the Scene"

Today's Tip is brought to you by our prompt guru, Comicfan. Thank you for this wonderful little lesson on setting the scene for a story! If YOU have a tip for a future blog entry, let Trebs or Renee Stevens know!   The Scene by Comicfan   Ever notice how important a scene is? I don’t mean the action; I mean that place it is located in. Sometimes it can add to the overall sense of what is happening or it can make it a tragedy. It isn’t very hard to have a story go wrong by the
Trebs

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Prompts

Writing Prompts #126 & #127

Good Friday! Happy Passover! Or that great catch all - TGIF!!!   I recently chatted with someone who said they couldn't write - they thought they did well on email and documents for work, but trying to write a story was something they thought beyond their skill. I have to say, ESPECIALLY for that type of person, these writing prompts are the perfect way to just experiment and try seeing what you are capable of.   ComicFan has given us two great new prompts - I really hope you try one of them
Trebs

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Writing For Technical Geeks

For today's tip - we have a great writeup by Myr that we hope will be useful to you as an author. If you have a tip you think the community would find useful, please let Trebs or Renee Stevens know!   Writing for Technical Geeks by Myr   As many know, I'm a rather technical person by nature. It is in my blood to research stuff into the ground so that I can understand all the angles of a thing. I think and rethink on things all the time. It is thus when I went into a writing blo
Trebs

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Blogging For Exposure

How to get more traffic to your stories is frequently something author's are concerned about. What use is it to write a fantastic story, if people don't know about it. Here is one way - Cia writes about blogging as a way to increase your exposure. Check out her tip and let us know what you think! Also, if YOU have a tip, let me know. It may be one we feature on a future news blog entry.   Blogging for Exposure by Cia   Do you blog? I didn't until about 3 months ago. I've writin
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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Editing

I love looking back over older GA Newsletters. This gem about editing was published in the December 2006 issue - but is still very relevant today. I hope you enjoy!   Editing Tips... How Far Should You Go?   There can be little doubt that editing is an extremely complicated process. Sure, anyone with basic literacy skills and a spellchecker can read through a story and correct spelling and grammatical mistakes. It's not exactly brain surgery. Yes, it takes a certain degree of skill a
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Prompts

Writing Prompts #124 & #125

Happy Friday (and for those who celebrate, Happy Cesar Chavez Day)!   ComicFan has come up with two new prompts - I hope you give at least one of them a try. If you do, share them with the community in the Writing Prompts forum.   Prompt 124 – Creative Cue – The Mystery You have been having a nice walk with your dog along the beach when your dog suddenly begins barking and tugging you toward pier. Deciding it is still a move back toward your car you allow the dog to lead you under the pier.
Trebs

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Spell Check

For today's tip, Cia found a fantastic "Ode to the Spell Check". It appears to have been written by Nico van Tonder from Zaire who wrote it around 1999.   Ode to the Spell Check Eye halve a spelling chequer It cam with my pea sea It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.   Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh.   As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can
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Prompts

Writing Prompts #122 & #123

Happy Friday everyone! Our two new writing prompts to play with are from ComicFan:   Prompt 122 – Creative Cue – Word List Use the following words in story: Red hand print, shattered vase, new car, fifteen year old boy, and a spider.   Prompt 123 – Challenge Cue – Poetry Mention poetry and see the look of fear on so many faces. Choose whichever kind of poetry you prefer to write in, but it must be about one of three topics. Either your favorite season, favorite holiday, or your favorite pers
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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Said-Bookisms

Today we have another very informative writing tip from Cia! Enjoy!!! Said-bookisms   I'm betting you have NO idea what a said-bookism is, do you? I know I didn't; I do know what the term means though, in a general sense. A said-bookism is a speech tag other than said or asked. Quite often they are used to describe the speech or the tone.   A few examples: He laughed She shrieked They intoned He smiled   Now, these are really common in usage, yet frowned upon more and more. Somethi
Renee Stevens

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Oops, It's Wrong... Or Is It?

Cia has done it again and written what I think is a fantastic writing tip. Check it out and see if you agree... Oops, it's wrong... or is it?   So many times I get confused by the complexities of English grammar, I'm sure many of you are the same. The rules are often contradictory, and the exceptions to exceptions are absolutely a quagmire of missteps and misspells waiting to trap you. I recently read an article that said to polish your writing skills, spend thirty minutes a month revi
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Prompts

Writing Prompts #120 & #121

Happy Friday. Looking forward to a great weekend, especially with the GA announcement coming out tomorrow morning.   What announcement? Well - check this news blog tomorrow and you'll see!   And as it's Friday, we have two new writing prompts to play with Today's writing prompts are brought to you by Comicfan:   Prompt 120 – Creative Cue – The perfect body Science has created the process. You no longer have to be unhappy with the body you were given. Now you can have exactly what you want
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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: The English Language

Myr found this joke and shared it with us. It may be a joke, but it is also very informative! We'd love to know YOUR thoughts on it!   English Joke/ Writing Primer   I think a retired English teacher was bored.   THIS IS GREAT!   Read all the way to the end................. This took a lot of work to put together!   You think English is easy??   1) The bandage was wound around the wound.   2) The farm was used to produce produce.   3) The dump was so full that it had to r
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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Revisiting "on-Hold" Stories

Revisiting "On-Hold" Stories By Renee Stevens As a writer, many of us may find times when we get stuck. Maybe we push a story to the back-burner and think, ‘oh, I’ll go back to it later.’ Then the time comes and we realize that we have no idea exactly where we want the story to go. Here’s just a few tips that might just help you get past the block and finish up some of those on-hold stories. Tip #1: When you finish a story and are trying to decide what to work on next, go back t
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Prompts

Writing Prompts #118 & #119

Happy Friday everyone... And since it's Friday, that means it we've got some writing prompts for you, as well as a great piece of writing that last Friday's prompts generated.   Today's writing prompts are brought to you by Comicfan: Prompt 118 – Creative Cue – Myths and Legends No matter what part of the world you are from there are myths and legends associated with it. From the leprechauns of Ireland, to the Gods of Norway, the dragons of China, or Paul Bunyan and his ox in
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Prompts

Writing Prompts #116 & #117

Today's writing prompts brought to you by Comicfan Prompt 116 Cue – the gift Years ago you came across a child crying because everyone had forgotten their birthday. Feeling bad you took the child into the nearby store and picked up a small gift for them and wished them a Happy Birthday. Well years have passed and it is now your birthday and they have arrived to repay your kindness. What is their gift to you? Prompt 117 – Creative Cue – First Line “What is that smell?” This
Renee Stevens

Renee Stevens in Prompts

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Head Hopping

How To Recognize a Head Hop Some of you may be asking, what exactly do you mean by a “head hop”. Head hopping is something that many of us have been accused of at one time or another. In this lesson we are going to look at how to recognize a head hop and ways in which to correct it. What is a head hop? A head hop is when you have a chapter or story that is from one characters point of view but you find that you have unintentionally included things such as thoughts of another character.
Lugh

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Those Pesky Words

Those Pesky Words by Cia I was having a discussion with an author the other day about words. Why do we pick the ones we use when we write? What should the focus be on, the words themselves or they image they are meant to convey? When I first started writing, I used a lot of formal language. For example, from my first story, The Price of Honor: The strange color registered with his consciousness but he continued to stare blankly about, trying to process the abrupt disloca
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips

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Prompts

Writing Prompts #112 & #113

Today's writing prompts brought to you by Comicfan are... Prompt 112 – Creative Cue – Poetry, Haiku The Haiku is a Japanese poetry form. In English we usually use a 5, 7, 5 syllable line. The Haiku usually focuses on some aspect of nature and ends with a surprise. With that in mind try writing at least one of your own. Here is one of mine as an example.   I hear the screaming And run to find him pointing At a spider. Squish. Prompt 113 – Challenge
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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Plot Bunnies

Um... hi again! Sorry about yesterday seems I had a med reaction to the new med. Needless to say I'm back, although not quite together. I'd like to bring to you an essay by Dark today. Hope you enjoy it. Plot Bunnies There’s nothing as nefarious as a plot bunny. Lurking in the corners of a writer’s brain like cockroaches, plot bunnies live to nibble on productivity. Those sharp front teeth bite and gnaw with a crunsh crunsh crunsh until single-minded focus turns into somethin
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Research

Many of you noticed the little faux pas I made in the beginning of yesterday's blog. Oops. Well, I received some interesting feedback over it, including a shoutout to this little gem, so I thought I would share.... Cia on Research... So, I read an ebook recently. Big surprise there, lol. Several things jumped out at me as I read it that let me know that the writer was definitely NOT a resident of the state they set it in. Not only did they describe the summer weather as humid, whi
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips

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Prompts

Writing Prompts #110 & #111

It's Friday! It's Friday! Whoot! Time for some jolly good reading. Our prompts this week are: Prompt 110 – Creative Cue – Creating Evil No one is just evil. They work from their own point of view. Your job is to create an “evil character” but you have to explain why they are that way. What happened to turn them into the person they are and why do they find that “evil” lifestyle so appealing? Prompt 111 – Creative Cue – The Quick Fix Everyone knows that there is no such thi
Lugh

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Creating A Credible Villain

You know we all love a bad boy. We all love them better in our stories. But can we write them? Today's tip talks about... Creating a Credible Villain by Renee Stevens When creating a villain for your story, there are many things that need to be considered. Villains are not ALL bad. While they will have mostly flaws, they most likely will also have something about them that is good. This could be anything. A serial killer could also be a devoted family man. Your villain
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips

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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Motivation

Motivation. What makes a writer start writing and keep at it day after day? I asked Mark to write something for the blog, and that was the topic he chose. So, let's all take a peek inside Mark's head and see what he thinks... Chronicles of Chronicles: How I wrote “Chronicles of An Academic Predator” I’ve learned that when someone really hot, really charming, really bitchy, and/or really sinister asks you to do something, it’s usually a good idea to agree, especially if they have
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Prompts

Writing Prompts #108 & #109

This week Comicfan brings us two new prompts: Prompt 108 – Creative Cue – List of words Use the following words in a short story: obituary, ice cream, red dress, fish, and apartment. and Prompt 109 – Creative Cue – Poetry Write a poem about your favorite person. Try to descriptive and give life to the person you are writing about. The poem can take any from a series of haikus, to free form, to an established pattern. In response to Prompt #107....   Lifetime Gu
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Writing Tips

Writing Tip: Physical Description

While poking around in the forums the other day I found myself in the Editor's forum looking at a thread concerning physical descriptions and how authors handle writing them. It seemed the biggest concern was how to get the info across without the story sounding like something plucked from the Nifty's "First Time" collection. I'm not going to repeat all the discussion from there to here, if you are an author, you should read it. If you are a new author... please read it. What I am going to
Lugh

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