Writing Powerful Endings The first few lines of any story are the most important — and often most difficult — words you’ll write. The next most challenging piece of writing is the ending. Once you draw your readers in and take them through your story, you need to leave them with a satisfying conclusion. Here, then, are some tips for writing powerful endings: Fiction picture books: The story in a...

Writing For Fun And Profit Every writer dreams of the day when they can profit from their writing. While income opportunities abound for writers, each method has drawbacks. Newspaper and magazine reporters can make a good living but their subject matter is often closely regulated and directed. Corporate writing can be even more lucrative but even more tightly controlled. Freelance writing offers...

Writing your first E-book Have you ever thought of writing an e-book? Writing an e-book can be a boring process. It’s quite possible you start writing an e-book and may never end it. In order to overcome such a situation it’s quite important that you make a strict schedule for yourself to write. One of the best ways to complete an e-book is to just go on writing without having to wonder what the ...

Visual Journaling: Express Yourself with Art and Writing Creating a visual journal can bring out the artist in you. Sometimes words cannot do your feelings justice or adequately express your mood. When you want a little more freedom of expression, why not give visual journaling a try? A visual journal is a combination of a scrapbook, a sketchpad, and a diary. Start with an unlined notebook. You ...

Voice in Narrative and Dialogue by Michael LaRocca [This article is re-printed with permission from Michael LaRocca. If you would like to read more of Michael’s articles, please visit: http://www.chinarice.org/articlebank.html] One of the nice things about being an author is that we can break any rule we want. (I just did.) It’s part of our job description. Language changes through usage — defin...

Common Writing Mistakes Most books aren’t rejected because the stories are “bad.” They’re rejected because they’re not “ready to read.” In short, minor stuff like typos, grammar, spelling, etc. I don’t mean places where we, as authors, deliberately break the rules. Those are fine. They’re our job. Language always changes with use, and we can help it on its way. No, I’m referring to places where ...

A Business Plan for Self-Published Authors In theory, self-publishing allows the author to keep all the profits and control the entire publishing process. In reality, many self-published authors have sustained financial loss as they don’t understand that, fundamentally, the publishing industry is a business. Therefore, authors who aspire to succeed at self-publishing a manuscript should create a ...

Writing Myths and Misconceptions A common piece of advice given to new writers is that they should mix with other writers with the aim that older writers will share their experiences, ideas and stories. This certainly prevents new writers from feeling isolated in what is, essentially, a lonely journey to publication. However, the down-side to this is that certain myths about writing skills, such ...

Find the Right Literary Agent Aspiring authors are often confused by the myriad of resources, articles, websites, books and advice on how to find a literary agent. Taking a structured approach, as described below, however, will help any aspiring author to find the right literary agent for his manuscript. Create a Table of Literary Agents On an A4 sheet of paper, create a table with 6 columns a...