Leah Dearborn

Happy Birthday To Georgette Heyer, the Salty Godmother of Regency Romance

In: Setting
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.
Stephanie M. Wytovich, MFA

Dear Charles Bukowski

In: Poetry
An open letter to Charles Bukowski on his birthday.
Nick Kolakowski

Big Bugs and Dead Astronauts: The Joys of a Non-Human Narrator

In: Narrator
Fresh ideas can be learned from books told from a different perspective.
Autumn Christian

How to Write Authentic Fiction

In: Abstracts
How to write authentic fiction that resonates with other people.
Megan J Kaleita

Freelance Copywriting Nearly Killed My Voice as A Writer

In: Voice
What you write matters. Getting paid is not enough.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Scene Breaks

In: Structure
Some tips on inserting scene breaks into your short stories.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Story Dissection — "In His House"

In: POV
Richard dissects his epistolary horror story, "In His House."
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Evaluating Your Work in Progress—As Author, Editor, and Reader

In: Rewriting
It's crucial that you can read your writing as the audience, an author, AND an editor.

Alan Wake: A Look Back At Video Gaming's Best Writer Character

In: Character
Ghosts I ain't afraid of, ghosts I AM afraid of, evaluating the handsomeness of Stephen King, ludonarrative dissonance, and everything else Alan Wake.
Leah Dearborn

Telling the Story of a Pandemic and the Future of Now

In: Setting
How do you write about the ‘now’ in a time of ongoing global crisis?
Leah Dearborn

10 Books For the Flight to Mars

In: Theme
Space exploration has been a popular topic in recent publishing, with a growing number of voices writing on the subject. Here are 10 books to keep you company for the (very) long flight.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Reasons Authors Don't Submit Their Work—And My Responses

In: Research
The top reasons authors don't submit their work, and my responses.
Max Booth III

The Horror Punchline

In: Structure
How to structure horror fiction with a standup comedian's POV.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: What Do You Have the Authority to Write?

Experience vs. research: What stories are yours to tell?

Who Owns The Story?

In: Character
What gives you the right to tell someone else's story?
Stephanie M. Wytovich, MFA

The Sound of Absence: Utilizing White Space in Poetry

This essay explores how white space can be used in poetry as a literary device that thrives on the power of absence.
Jay Wilburn

Why Every Author Should Write Haiku

There are important things prose authors can learn by experimenting with haiku. It is an easy artform to take up, but difficult to master.
Cina Pelayo

The Importance of the Character Interview

The more that you know about your characters, the more confidently you can write about them.
Jay Wilburn

Lessons I Learned Ghostwriting Romance (as a Non-Romance Writer)

After ghostwriting many romance novels, Jay Wilburn learned some lessons that helped with writing stories in other genres.
Joshua Isard

Curious not Confused

Finding the right amount of information to include in a story can be a difficult task for any writer.
Jay Wilburn

10 Things Wrong with All My First Drafts

In: Rewriting
No first draft is perfect. We all have bad habits and bad habits show up a lot. Here are 10 things Jay Wilburn seems to find in all his first drafts.
Richard Thomas

Storyville: Writing Horror in a Post-Covid World

How do you write dark fiction in a post-Covid world? Be a phoenix, rising from the ashes.
Gabriel Hart

What I Learned From Writing "A Return to Spring"

In: Research
Think about all the stories that fall under radar, which sculpted your town into the place it is today.

Science Versus Faith in Fiction

Is science an overused tool in writing? What do you stand to gain by adding faith to your fiction?
Taylor Houston

Nothing New Under the Mistletoe - 40 Versions of "A Christmas Carol" You Should Check Out

In: Theme
I love "A Christmas Carol", and I thought I'd seen every version out there—I was wrong.