And how it is different from titling a novel — Coming up with a great title for a piece of writing can be stressful. You want something cool and memorable. Something that accurately fits and represents your story. And something that hasn’t been used before. It can be so difficult — if you don’t have a perfect title miraculously drop…

On finding unifying factors, discovering flow, and embracing the cycle — So you are ready to take the next step in your short story writing journey: publishing a short story collection. Whether chapbook or full manuscript, whether self-publishing or sending that manuscript to a publisher, that now means you need to (a) pick which stories to put into the collection and…

It’s never too early to learn — When I was a baby writer tiptoeing into the creative writing scene nearly a decade ago, one piece of advice I saw was “don’t start researching publishing yet.” “Yet” being before you have a book or story ready for the public. “Yet” being before you have developed your writing skills…

Breaking this writing rule for fun and effect Last week, I published an article about the mistakes to avoid when naming fictional characters in a story, including the age-old advice to not give characters the same or too similar names. This is for the sake of clarity, an overriding principle…

Stupid advice for clicks makes me want to bang my head against the wall Sorry, but I’ve gotta rant for a second. A week or so ago I clicked on an article on this very website with a title like “How To Make Money Writing Children’s Books On Amazon” or…

What’s in a name? A lot, apparently — Naming fictional characters can be fun or harrowing depending on your personal take on it. I know many writers love to scout out names on baby naming websites with their all their information on name meanings, name entomology, and the like. However, the meaning of the names, which may only…

Check yourself before your wreck yourself — It’s that time of the year again when every writer is aware of whether they participate or not: NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. A group effort of writers around the world to write a novel rough draft (or 50,000 words of one) within the month of November. …

And what creative writers should focus on instead — I will be the first to admit there are some absolutely iconic opening lines to novels out there from “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” to “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want…

Why you have to cut your favorite things sometimes and how to make it easier — It’s hard out there for a creative writer. It’s hard to find time to write. It’s hard to get our creative vision on the page the same way and quality we imagined it. It’s hard to get published. But often the force hardest on us is ourselves. This doubt, imposter’s…