The Stuff

Sep'16

Tips on Writing Better Villains (Video)

Your hero is well-developed and believable. You know him or her inside and out, have created character profiles and conducted interviews, have written and rewritten the perfect backstory until your hero’s author headcanon is as long as the manuscript itself.

So why would you settle for a bland, cookie-cutter villain? A strong, believable villain is crucial, and in her YouTube video, Shade gives fantastic tips for fleshing out your villain and making him or her a true antagonist, in the best sense. ...

Sep'16

12 Tips for Protecting Your Writing Time

| Victoria Griffin

Writers write, right? Then why is it so hard to carve out time to follow your passion and to do what you do best? Here are 12 tips to make sure your writing time remains your writing time. ...

Aug'16

The Wealthy Freelancer: A Worthy Read

| Carol Wiley

If you are a freelancer or thinking about freelancing, The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle on Amazon is a worthy read. They're not really secrets, of course, but the word "secrets" always sounds good in a book title. The value of the book lies in bringing the information together in one place. ...

Aug'16

How a Wandering Mind Fuels the Creative Process

Writing process

| Garrett Dennert

Your mind doesn’t just shut off while wandering. Not at all. It instead seeks and finds this point of relaxation that has historically proved to not only be crucial to the creative process, but a step to the creative process that’s highly sought after and infrequently caught. ...

Aug'16

3 Prompts to Break a Writing Rut

| Victoria Griffin

Writing prompts are a fantastic way to get out of a writing rut. We’ve all experienced them. Sometimes every story you write seems to have the same settings, the same characters, the same conflict. Sometimes you feel like you’re writing the same story over and over. ...

Aug'16

Going Medieval on Plagiarists: Their Nine Circles of Hell (infographic)

| Victoria Griffin

Plagiarism: the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low, the absolute worst crime a writer can commit. In the style of Dante’s Inferno, this infographic details the nine levels of plagiarism. ...