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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 - Skills

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
Trebs

Trebs in Writing Tips - Skills

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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
Trebs

Trebs in Prompts

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Writing Tips - Skills

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
Writing Tips - Skills

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
Trebs

Trebs in Writing Tips - Skills

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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
Trebs

Trebs in Prompts

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Writing Tips - Skills

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
Trebs

Trebs in Writing Tips - Skills

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Writing Tips - Skills

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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Trebs in Writing Tips - Skills

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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
Trebs

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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 - Skills

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

Lugh in Writing Tips - Skills

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Writing Tips - Skills

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 - Skills

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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
Lugh

Lugh in Prompts

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Writing Tips - Mileau

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 - Mileau

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Writing Tips - Skills

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 - Skills

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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

Lugh in Prompts

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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 - Idea

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
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips - Idea

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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
Lugh

Lugh in Prompts

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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 - Mileau

Writing Tip: Out Of The Ooze

Well, yesterday was an interesting day... I would like to go on record as saying I did write today's tip. Take it with the intended humor is it written with... Out of the Ooze by Lugh Please understand that what I am about to share with you is a personal experience. It is not based on any research nor is it scientifically sound; take it with a grain of salt. Better yet, save the salt, you may very well need it when you get to ‘The End’. I have heard authors speak repeatedly aga
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips - Mileau

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Prompts

Writing Prompts #106 & #107

Time to go haunt Comicfan and see what he can drag out of the inspiration file for this week. Seems we have two new challenges. One is a Point of View challenge -- those are always interesting -- and one has the goal of animating an inanimate object. You've got a week. Make life interesting. Prompt 106 – Cue – The Fight Remember the last argument you got into? Change it into a story about two other people. The challenge is to tell the story from the other person’s point of view
Lugh

Lugh in Prompts

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Writing Tips - Skills

Tip Thursday

Herm, we've had a resource, a writing tip, an editing tip... how about a site tip?   How to promote your story on GA:   Just as you'd find with a book placed on the bookshelf in a store, your story can get lost on GA among the other stories if you don't make it stand out. Most importantly, imo, is to have a story that engages and interests readers and then try some of these other tips to help improve your fan base.   1. Post regularly if you are writing a serial work. We ask that you don't
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips - Skills

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Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Structuring & Punctuating Dialogue

Everyone who has ever tried to pass eighth grade knows what a pain grammar can be, and one of the worst things in my personal opinion is punctuating dialogue. As many of you know, Cia edits for me, and one of her favorite things to do is smack me around for not putting proper punctuation around my speech tags. So, in honor of my favorite fallacy she agreed to educate everyone – enjoy! Important rules about structuring and punctuating dialogue: Definition of a speech tag: Any descriptiv
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips - Skills

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Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip Joke

How about a Blast From the Past? This was printed in our 2007 Vol2 Ed 4 Newsletter under Jokes: How To Write Good 1. Avoid alliteration. Always. 2. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. 3. Employ the vernacular. 4. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. 5. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary. 6. Remember to never split an infinitive. 7. Contractions aren't necessary. 8. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. 9. One shoul
Lugh

Lugh in Writing Tips - Skills

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Prompts

Writing Prompts #104 & #105

Each week, our Writing Promp Guru, Comicfan, brings to you two (or more) prompts in the Writing Prompt forum, a subforum in the Writing Workshops forum. Writing Prompts are exercises for your writing muscles. They can help you get through writers block (creative prompts) or train specific muscles (technical prompts). They can even focus your writing muscles into new thought patterns (challenge prompts). Here are a few things to keep in mind to keep everyone safe, sane, and successful.
Lugh

Lugh in Prompts

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