Storyville: From Baseline to Variation—How to Set and Expand Expectations
How to set the baseline and then take your readers somewhere else entirely.
Storyville: Building Up Your Horror Story Before You Tear It Down
Tips on how to build up your horror story before you tear it all down.
Happy Birthday To Georgette Heyer, the Salty Godmother of Regency Romance
Heyer said of her own writing in the 1940s, “I think to myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense," but her self-deprecation undermined her wit and substantial body of bestselling work.
Telling the Story of a Pandemic and the Future of Now
How do you write about the ‘now’ in a time of ongoing global crisis?
Video Games as Literature: A Defense of the Medium
Video games are often looked down on. However, writers and lit enthusiasts can crack open new worlds of stories by appreciating the medium and its unique offerings.
Storyville: What Do You Have the Authority to Write?
Experience vs. research: What stories are yours to tell?
Curious not Confused
By Joshua Isard
Finding the right amount of information to include in a story can be a difficult task for any writer.
Storyville: Turning Your Obsessions Into Fiction
Some tips for turning your obsessions—good and bad—into powerful stories.
Storyville: Finding Original Locations to Set Your Horror Stories
How can you find original locations to set your horror stories? Here are a few ideas.
Storyville: Pacing and Depth in Short Fiction vs. Novels
Thoughts on the differences between novels and short stories, specifically when it comes to pacing and depth.
What Reviewing Nonfiction Taught Me About Writing Fiction
Reviewing nonfiction taught me a few tricks that helped improve my approach to writing fiction.
Storyville: Living Vicariously Through Our Fiction
Some thoughts on how and why we live through our stories and protagonists.
5 Unconventional Methods of Writing a Story
Instead of surrendering to writer's block, give these ideas a try.
Storyville: Method Writing
What is method writing, and how can it help breathe authenticity into your work?
Dialogue: The Number One Mistake Newbie Writers Make
There's no lack of online advice about how to write dialogue in fiction. But there’s one issue I see over and over in the dialogue of newbie writers, and I have yet to find one post that tackles it.
So You Want To Write About The Cold
By Peter Derk
Want to make a reader shiver? Here are a few tips.
Storyville: Horror Story vs. Horror Novel
How do you know if your horror project is a story, novella, or novel? Some quick tips.
Anatomy of a Mini Flash Novel Experiment: Angel Dust
By Alex Behr
"Planet Grim" Author Alex Behr turns prompts into experimental prose.
Avoiding Stereotypes When Writing Place (Even If That Place Is Home)
Knowing your setting doesn't mean you'll avoid stereotyping it.
The World in the Skull: A Story’s Environment
By Jeff Noon
Part 9 of Jeff's 10 part series on the writing of his new novel, "A Man of Shadows."
Brace Yourselves: A Breakdown of the Game of Thrones Pilot, "Winter is Coming"
The Game of Thrones pilot, "Winter is Coming," packs a sprawling, fantasy epic into a tight sixty-one minutes featuring distinct and interesting settings and characters.
Storyville: Leaving Room for the Reader in Your Fiction
Thoughts and advice on how to leave room for your readers when writing fiction.
Five Storytelling Tips I Learned from Watching 'The Bachelor'
Five examples of how reality TV Shows 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette' showed me how to write better stories.
The Architecture of Fantasy: How Authors Use Real Places To Build Imaginary Ones
Sometimes our world and others overlap, like the center of a Venn diagram. These new worlds that still retain vestiges of our own offer a unique angle; they allow the author to make comparisons.
Writing the Unknown Setting: 8 Tips on Conducting a Research Trip for your WIP
What happens if you need to set a story in a place you've never seen? Melissa F. Olson, author of the Boundary Magic series, walks you through how to plan a location research trip.
