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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 - Character

The Passive Character

The Passive Character Roller coasters can be a lot fun, can’t they? Hehehe! Unless you’re deathly afraid of them like I was when I was a little kid, and then had to try them out and find a love for them a bit later on. That was when I learned to appreciate the twists and turns, the highs and lows, and the overall speed involved with the joy of getting onto one of those massive monsters and being tossed around like a rag doll for a little while. And whenever I’m writing something that I want
Writing Tips - Character

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments When creating a compelling scene in your stories that will really work to hold the attention of your readers captive, it’s always important to remember what elements you can use, and what tools that you have at your disposal, that can elicit that particular emotional response in your readers. And one of the most powerful spells that you can cast as a wizard of words...is the amazing power of confrontation. When I say ‘confrontation’, I’m not talking about conflict. Con
Writing Tips - Character

Cheating (Part Two)

Cheating (Part Two) Welcome back everybody! ((Hugz)) As I’m writing this, I’m hoping that I didn’t offend anyone or step on any toes as far as their writing process is concerned with Part One of this article. I’m writing these back to back, and it will be a short while before you guys get to see them, so my apologies if I sounded like I was singling out any kind of writing style or anything like that. I wasn’t, promise. These articles come mostly from stuff that I’ve found in my own writing
Writing Tips - Character

Monologues

Monologues Do you guys remember those old James Bond movies, or hell...even the new ones, where our hero has finally been captured and somehow strapped into some super convoluted contraption that is sure to bring about his very slow, very painful, demise? A laser aimed at his penis or whatever...hehehe, something that looks like it took longer to build and test than anything else that our villain had been working on in his dastardly plan to take over the world. You know the ones. Now, of cou
Writing Tips - Character

Character Empathy

Character Empathy So what is the strong adhesive that keeps people glued to a story once they start reading? What can writers do to evoke emotion and conjure up the craving needed to keep reading all the way to the end without stopping? What makes them think about your story during the day when they’re away from the internet, in the car, on the train, or even while they’re hanging out with friends? It is such a powerful skill that you can wield as a writer to have your words and your ideas
Writing Tips - Character

Unloveable

I truly think that Mark Twain said it best... "A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory." If that's the case...I wish my memory was a lot worse than it is now, because 'a clear conscience', I'll never have. And yet, I don't see that as a bad thing. Never have, never will. The truth is...I had to grow up at some point. And, yes...I made PLENTY of mistakes! I have plenty of regrets. Lost friends, created enemies, and made a lot of bad choices for selfish reason. But...you know
Writing Tips - Character

Elements That Do not Work

Elements That Don’t Work There are always going to be times when an artist, in any genre, is going to run into a few problem elements in writing their story. It happens. There’s no reason to panic, and certainly no reason for you to give up on your project. It’s a normal part of the process. Sometimes you have ideas that seem so exciting and engaging at the time while you’re planning things out...and then, once you start writing, you realize that those ideas aren’t as supportive of your stor
Writing Tips - Character

Character Diversity

When I was growing up, I can distinctly remember LOVING the old school martial arts flicks that they used to show on Channel 66 in Chicago on Sundays! "Incredible Kung Fu Mission", "Five Deadly Venoms", "Drunken Master"! A good Shaw Brothers original? They never failed to excite me and have me locked in to the point where, by the time it was over, I'd be fighting my own pillows and trying to kick couch cushions across the room with my non-existent skills as a five or six year old Kung Fu warrior
Writing Tips - Character

Non-Villainous Villains

There is a light that I truly believe shines within each and every single one of us as human beings. Whether we believe in it or share it with others...it's there. We know it. We feel it. However...the brightest of lights can cast the darkest of shadows, and sliding from one side of the spectrum to the other can be a very short trip, depending on the current circumstances. And when it comes to creating villains in your writing, being able to blur the line between 'good' and 'evil' can truly crea
Writing Tips - Character

The Hero Protagonist

The Hero Protagonist When writing a story...there needs to be a main focus. Naturally, there can be many characters and many different events and situations surrounding that character, but I truly believe that it's important to keep things primarily concentrated on the thoughts and actions of a single protagonist in your narrative, in order to keep things tight and interesting without wandering off into La La Land. Your protagonist should be the first thing that you think about when you
Writing Tips - Character

Dialog Variety

Now this is something that I've always had a bit of a problem with, myself, when writing modern day characters in my stories. So if any of you guys have any ideas or hidden secrets about how to pull this off in multiple stories, or just from a variety of different characters in a single story....please feel free to add some of those tips in the replies below as I can always use more help in this area. And why not learn from my peers, some of the best there is, right? You see...and I've hea
Writing Tips - Character

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 - Character

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Writing Tips - Character

Jekyll And Hyde

Jekyll And Hyde Something that can really stand out in a story while you’re reading it...and not in a good way...is the flip flopping nature of the characters that are supposed to be carrying the whole project on their shoulders and moving things forward. You see...there’s a point when the characters use the story to grow and evolve, and times when the story uses the characters to grow and evolve. The problem comes from writers who don’t keep it in mind that these two motivations have to be
Writing Tips - Character

Man Vs Self

Man Vs Self As many writers already know, and I’ve mentioned it a number of times in the past myself, almost all story conflicts can be broken down into three different categories. Man versus man, man versus society, and man versus self. Each one can be very easy to decode once you’ve read enough stories of different varieties, and have taught yourself to recognize the ‘checklist’ that exists for each labeled category. Writing gay fiction, it’s very easy to approach all three. Whether it be
Writing Tips - Character

Character Casting

Character Casting One thing that I remember most about trying my hand at the acting business was that I went into every meeting and audition thinking that I was going to nail the role. Hehehe, I was a kid, so why not? Right? I was going to go in there, whether I got the script ahead of time so I could learn my lines by heart, or if I just went in cold. How hard could it be? So I’d feel all optimistic about my chances, and I’d make sure that I was prepared to give it my absolute best sho
Writing Tips - Character

Heartbreak

Heartbreak It hurts. If any of you guys have been through it, and I'm assuming that you all have at one time or another, same as me...you know just how much pain it can cause when it comes to experiencing a really painful heartbreak. I think the most damaging part behind the psychology of heartbreak itself is the fact that you have to willingly lower your defenses to truly love or be loved by anybody else. You have to break open. There's no way to truly enjoy and embrace love, while sti
Writing Tips - Character

August Author Opportunities & Character Articles

This week we have something a little different for today's blog post though we're keeping it all about improving and encouraging authors. Remember we have various opportunities for authors to be featured such as:    Story Critique: Open to all GA authors. Sign up here. Ask An Author: Send your questions for your favorite authors to Carlos Hazday (no questions = no Ask An Author) Story Recommendations:  Open to all GA authors & readers. PM your r
Cia

Cia in Writing Tips - Character

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Writing Tips - Character

Character Combos

Character Combos As many of you guys already know...I absolutely LOVE to work with ensemble casts in my own work! It gives me so much freedom and extra room to build characters up (or tear them down) without having to resort to long bouts of exposition to do it. I’ve always thought that the true identity of a character was more impactful by centering on their positive or negative interactions with the other characters in my stories then just talking about them, second-hand. It says soooo muc
Writing Tips - Character

Story Parallels

Story Parallels If ‘this’…then ‘that’. When I’m writing or even creating a new idea for a new story in my head...that’s always a part of the process. Always. Not only from beginning to end, but involving the characters that exist within the plot and the world that I ultimately built, just for them. There is just something that gives the story a very personal level of depth for me, and it’s become a permanent style when it comes to my writing in general. Everything has a cause and an eff
Writing Tips - Character

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

Lugh in Writing Tips - Character

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Writing Tips - Character

Subtext In Dialogue

Subtext In Dialogue It’s something that we all do, and often on a daily basis. We LIE! Hehehe! It’s true! It might be quick and automatic and usually pretty much harmless for the most part...but we all do it. People ask us how we’re doing, and we say, “I’m fine” or “I’m ok”...when nothing could be further from the truth. We go to jobs that we hate and stay in relationships that don’t make us happy and pretend that life is as good as it gets. We interact with people that we, literally, can’t
Writing Tips - Character

Wreckage and Redemption

Wreckage/Redemption I, honestly, can’t help but to love a story about character redemption! We all do to some degree, don’t we? There’s just something about it that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Considering that we all have fears and insecurities, flaws and weaknesses...it’s extremely easy to relate and empathize with characters who find that special moment in time when they’re able to overcome the odds and find the courage to grow and evolve and navigate their way beyond what’s b
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