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Writing World

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About this blog

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!

Entries in this blog

Writing Tips

eBook Publishing

I have such fond memories of working in a big music store in the heart of downtown Chicago for a number of years. Easily, the best job that I've ever had in my life! No other job has ever been more fun, more meaningful, more beneficial to me in my growth as a person. No contest. Hehehe! Just a bunch of high school and college kids with a love and passion for music and art and film, to the point where we appreciated the 'misfit' in one another and embraced as being something to be proud of, inste
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Writing Tips

Writer Burnout

This week, I'd like to talk about something that I face from time to time, and it often takes a few days for me to power through it, but it can be done with a little bit of patience to balance out the frustration of not being able to sit down and write when you really want to. I'm talking about writer burn out. Don't panic, hehehe! It's not a permanent condition. But it does happen from time to time, and it's never a good feeling. But there are ways to get those rusty wheels turning ag
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Writing Tips

Connective Tissue

I can't imagine anything feeling better than finding some level of pride in one of my projects. (Well, there might be a few things that feel better, but I can keep my clothes on for this one! Hehehe!) And that pride doesn't just come from favorable responses and good ratings. In fact, it comes from finishing a new chapter or project before anybody ever even sees it. It's like the planets and stars align, and everything is finally fitting together the way that I pictured it...or at least as close
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Writing Tips

Ensemble Casts

Ensemble In one of my stories, "Savage Moon", I write about a teenage boy who gets drawn in with a bad crowd of misfits...who later turn out to be a pack of werewolves. (Don't worry, that's not a spoiler. It's, literally, the plot of the story. And it's practically given away in the title. So I didn't ruin any surprises with that one! Hehehe!) However, the 'alpha' tells their potential recruit about what it takes to build a strong pack. A family unit. And the key is in the personality traits of
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Leave Room for Readers

One thing that I have always loved about writing stories is the idea that I can finally allow my mind and my emotions to exist in a world that I, alone, can actually control! Hehehe, and that probably sounds pretty narcissistic, but it's the truth. In the worlds that I create, the shy guy can get their first kiss from the prettiest boy on the block. The lovable 'friend zone' kid can get the boy of his dreams to finally see him for the perfect mate that he is. Justice is always served where neede
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Writing Tips

Story Arcs

Beginning. Middle. End. Setup. Conflict. Resolution. All stories have a certain formula to them. That formula can be played with, rearranged, and altered, in a variety of different ways...but even that has some form of structure, when you sit down and think about it. Straying from a conventional method of telling a story doesn't mean that the original blueprint doesn't exist. We just choose to find a way of subverting expectations concerning the norm. A norm that set the standard for u
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Tone

It was 1997, around this time of year, when James Cameron's big blockbuster movie, 'Titanic', was bout to hit movie screens around the world. I remember it vividly! Hehehe, mostly because my best friend and I were like, "We'll put that off until later! We're not missing 'Tomorrow Never Dies'! It's James Bond, dammit!" Anyway, as they began advertising 'Titanic'...I noticed something different about the way the commercials were doing it. This was actually a sneaky little trend for a short time in
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Story Blurbs

So...readers have decided to sit down and go to a quality archive full of some really well written, really hot, stories online. They get comfortable, open their laptops, head on over to GayAuthors.org because we've obviously got the best game in town when it comes to this sort of thing, hehehe...and BAM! They're looking at hundreds upon hundreds of stories all at once. Whether readers feel overwhelmed by that, or they take the happy 'kid in a candy store' approach, it can be a daunting task to f
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Writer Collaboration

Flashing back to some time around 2006 or so... I remember being really excited to join forces with another massively popular writer here on Gay Authors, and we were secretly trading emails back and forth, putting a story together so we could both bring our individual talents to the table and make something really special. The working title for the story was "Turn A Blind Eye", and the author was @DomLuka. If you haven't read any of Dom Luka's stories on the site, I highly recommend doing s
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Writing Tips

Engaging Dialogue

The thing about having a dialogue with someone in real life, versus having a dialogue in written prose...is that, more times than not, prose demands a sense of purpose from its characters' interaction. There's very little room for fluff and small talk. The words being spoken have to actually 'say' something about the current situation and add to the story. It doesn't have to be forced, but I think it helps to know what your intentions are as a writer when adding dialogue to the scenes you have i
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8 Tips for Improving your Writing

Most of the time, when I'm writing stories or new chapters to existing stories, it's spawned by some sort of inspiration or emotion that I'm feeling. That's just something my personal creativity feeds off of, and sometimes the muse for one particular story or another can be a 'feast or famine' adventure. What can I say? When the time is right, the stars and planet align and they let me know when it's time. Once that happens, the words just seem to flow naturally as if they came from somewhere el
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Conflict

Conflict... ″I love you!″ ″I love you more!″ ″Unh unh! I love YOU more!″ ″No way! I love you more than ANYTHING in this world! I love you to infinity!″ ″M′kay! You win! Kiss me!″ Mwah mwah mwah mwah...blechhh! Hehehe! Honestly, how long can a story like this go on before folks get the point and grow weary of the content? There are only so many ways to say ′I love you′. Only so many ways to hang out and have a good time. Only so many holes to fill in a sexual en
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Scene Transitions

When I′m writing, I often visualize my stories as being movies, TV shows, comic books, etcetera. It′s just the way my mind works, I guess. I picture the characters, the backgrounds, the musical score, the movement of the camera...it′s a part of me putting every part of my story together in sequence, and actually seeing things as they play out in my head so I can effectively describe it for everybody else who might be reading. And just like movies and TV, a vast majority of stories are told in a
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Writer Inspiration

One thing that I can tell you about my own writing muse is this... It is a shy, introverted, creature, and it takes a lot of coaxing to get it to come out of hiding sometimes. Basically, if you don't want to write your story tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day, because you're waiting for the inspiration to hit you...you're going to end up wasting a LOT of writing time. In fact, you may lose that inspiration altogether. Sometimes you've got to find it on your own. You've got to hunt i
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Working From Your Point Backwards

Every now and then, when writing one of my stories, I find myself trying to demonstrate a point that might not be recognized fully without a specific example or short dialogue surrounding it. As I always say, it's better to 'show' than to 'tell' in your stories. Sometimes, the point being made is just for the sake of a scene or two, or for the development of a certain character arc. And other times, that one point might be the sobering moment of my entire project. The true theme of it all, and t
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Sequels, Prequels and Spin-offs

Have you ever completed a story that you were truly proud of writing, that got a standing ovation from your readers and fans, and became one of the shining gems in your body of work? If so, let me add to the giant round of applause and congratulate you on creating something truly special for everyone to absorb and keep close to their hearts for years to come. It's not an easy task, believe me. So take pride in the moment. Sometimes the success of something that you've previously written, al
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Creating and Escalating Tension

Now, while many readers that get truly involved with the stories we write online are mostly involved in the sometimes exaggerated drama of the situations we put our main characters through...I feel that it is often the tension delivered in a few key scenes, sprinkled here and there throughout, that truly captivates a reader's attention and brings them to the edge of their seats. It's this grinding on the nerves, along with a few tugs on the heart strings, that can really allow your audience to l
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