How I have and you can too — In 2 hours a day, for the last 3 years, I’ve built my personal brand. In that time? 17k on Twitter 30k on Medium 15k on my newsletter 80% of that growth? Came in the last 6 months. The truth is, you have to spend a long time getting good…

And why you should. — I learned about style guides in the late 1990s when I was a baby newspaper reporter in the actual Armpit of America. Armpit of America Discover Armpit of America in Battle Mountain, Nevada: Small Nevada town embraced its designation as the "Armpit of…www.atlasobscura.com A style guide is simply a book full of writing rules. Do you write out numbers or use numerals? Is there a period after Dr? Should we use…

Fiction writing, in reality, is just storytelling. It sounds simple, but there are many components that make it a bumpy road, but a necessary one. This, being my first ever blog, will be a broad article, simply breaking down storytelling and how you do it. The first thing you need…

Inspiration is everywhere if you pay attention — A story does not have to be something you make up or invent using pure creativity. I would argue that stories rarely emerge out of nowhere. Authors do not wake up with an idea sparked solely by their imagination. Most innovative stories come from an author’s lived experiences and beliefs. …

Years ago, when I was a struggling alcoholic 20-something in Seattle, my secret dream was to be a writer. But, I couldn’t write. Every time I sat down to try, I was blocked. And not just blocked, but extremely blocked. I felt panicky and anxious, or numb and frozen. I…

a simple story structure that works every time — I’d like to tell you about a simple, five part story structure that works for short stories in any genre. I learned this more than twenty years ago while teaching for Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City — back when you saw those yellow Gotham boxes on every street…

5 tips on writing stories with less words — Flash fiction is a type of short story usually 1,500 words or less. Sometimes they might only consist of a few words. Despite their brief length, they’re complete stories. Although writing shorter fiction has its own challenges, it’s good practice for any writer to sharpen their focus, tighten up their…

One of the key elements in writing that helps readers visualize a fictional character is through direct characterization. The primary objective of the writer is to enable readers to visualize who certain characters are and how they will interact with each other. …

A guide for writers who want to share life stories — A person’s life holds so many stories. However, have you considered writing about any of them? Whether you’re interested in sharing tales from your life, want to make sense of the past, or simply desire to record your experiences, you might choose to write a memoir. Unlike an autobiography, memoirs…

My dialogue tag confession — One common guideline in the world of fiction writing regarding dialogue is to only use “said” in your dialogue tags. Despite lists floating about on the internet with thesaurus’ amount of “other ways to say said” it is pretty universally frowned upon, with very little controversy compared to other common…

“Suspenseful” is not how I’d describe a game of chess, but Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel The Queen’s Gambit is the exception. The incredible popularity of the Netflix show, which is a beat-for-beat adaptation of the book, proves that the source material succeeds in creating narrative tension. “Tension” can be defined…

As a writer, it is important that you know how to use all the tools at your disposal. Remember that writing is very technical, and one misplaced comma or misused word could change the entire tone of your work. The comma is a particularly important tool, and has a lot…

In terms of point of view (POV), most authors either write in first person (using the pronoun “I”) or third person (using the pronouns “he,” “she,” or “they”). Here, I’ll cover the ins and outs of first person, including: Advantages and disadvantages of a close POV Types of first-person narrators…

Sharpen your prose by capturing snapshots in time — I first encountered vignettes when I was writing short stories and discovered a publication dedicated to the literary form. I ended up writing a few pieces for fun and submitting them. As my first foray outside of fiction, I discovered the benefit of vignettes in improving my prose. …

Why a beat sheet is the best way to see the forest for the trees — Vaccinated or not vaccinated, employed or underemployed, it is really hard to write right now. And it’s no picnic to revise. Your mind wanders, the very act of writing feels futile, maybe irrelevant. But you must create — you must! When we write or revise well, it takes us out…

Everything a writer needs to understand, find, and use alpha and beta readers to foolproof their story — When you complete a story and edited it to the point where you think it is good, that is when you turn to beta and alpha readers. Critique groups aren’t the same as beta and alpha readers, however. They are two separate but both helpful strategies to getting feedback on…

My favorite Medium contest entries this week — I can’t stop reading the Medium contest entries. I always say contests bring out our best work as writers, and this has certainly been true on Medium this month. Grab a comfy chair and let these incredible writers wrap you up in their worlds. Each essay is a few minutes…

You need to open a separate file for it — My heart beats as I drive the cursor towards the draft. To click or not to click? I dread reading the private note the editor may have left on my latest article. I change my mind. I ignore the draft, and I get back to typing another one. I tell…

Get more out of the books you read — Many famous writers have stressed the importance of reading to become a better writer. Stephen King observed is his memoir On Writing, “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. …

Expert advice from a roundtable of editors — There once was a time where journalists were proclaiming that the personal essay was dead. In 2017, Jia Tolentino wrote in the New Yorker that, “The Internet made the personal essay worse, as it does for most things.” Now, in 2021, that couldn’t be further than the truth. The first-person…