Ratcheting up the Tension

by Ceil Boyles

First, I want to be clear that I’m referring to the characters in your book, not you.  As writers, we encounter enough tension without ratcheting it up any more.

I attended an excellent workshop on this topic given by Donald Maass at a Pikes Peak Writers Conference a couple of years ago.  [...]

Keep It Simple

Bobbi Shupe

By Bobbi Shupe

“Do you have to paint every leaf on a tree for it to look real? And every blade of grass in the lawn?” The anxious nine year old was envisioning hours of painstakingly drawing every little leaf on the bare branches of his carefully drawn tree.

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Whiney’s First Writers Convention — and why you should go to them too!

by Hilari Bell

As followers of this blog know, Whiney went to her first writers convention (and blogged about it — check the archives) back in April. I’m really glad she had such a great time. (Though maybe we should explain to her about pitching.) But reading her post got me thinking about going to [...]

Camera Ready

by Claudia Cangilla McAdam

I never fail to have a camera with me, usually a small, digital model that takes great pictures and fits in my purse. It comes in handy in so many circumstances, such as when someone at our critique group meeting says, “On our Wild Writers web site, we should have [...]