It's been almost a year since we launched this project, and in that time our amazing contributors have covered revision prep, character, setting, voice, world building, story structure, and pacing. We've gathered querying tips from next year's group of debut authors and had a crash-course on building a writing community. We're so thankful to those … Continue reading In Closing: Resources We Love

You’ve done your research, polished your query, sent it out to agents, and gotten some requests. You wait patiently and work on other things refresh your inbox all day every day until finally, finally, a little "one" appears. You’ve got mail! Hooray! You scan the email. It’s not a request for a phone call. But … Continue reading Somewhere Between Yes and No: the R&R

The more I write, the more my process has slid more towards the middle between pantsers and outliners, borrowing tools from both ends. One of the tools I never expected to use so frequently—or depend on so heavily—is the twitter pitch. Twitter pitches are most commonly used in contests like DVpit, Pitmad, SFFpit, PitDark, etc. … Continue reading The Twitter Pitch

Intro Finding and building one’s writing community may not seem like an aspect of craft at first glance, but I would argue that building a strong community is an essential component of becoming a stronger writer. So to me it is an essential element of craft. It’s not only that good critique partners can help … Continue reading Finding and Building Your Writing Community

Hello, hello! Are you a brave warrior about to go into the querying trenches? Or maybe you're already in there? I've been through the querying trenches too, and signed with an agent as a proud product of the slush. Today, I've gathered several other Roaring 20's debuts to share our top advice for staying strong … Continue reading 20 Querying Tips from Roaring 20’s Debuts

So you’ve written your novel – now what? At the most simplistic level, manuscripts are composed of two things: a story and (usually) words. Often, one of those is harder for writers to develop than the other. Some writers need to do more focused learning on either the elements of story or for writing itself, … Continue reading What your Novel Pitch Might Tell You

One of the most frustrating things as a writer of any kind is having a word limit. On one hand, learning to be concise is a useful and, indeed, necessary skill; on the other, I want to write what I’m writing in however many words it needs! Magazines and websites are full of word counts … Continue reading Cutting Words

Scaffolding is the temporary assemblage of lightweight poles and platforms to provide a workspace during the construction or decoration of a building. And in writing it’s a metaphor for a problem we all encounter when we are revising. In this post I am going to break down what some examples of scaffolding, why they’re a … Continue reading What is Scaffolding?

My first drafts tend to look like murder mystery dinner parties. While that’s partially due to my Clue obsession, it’s mostly due to my overreliance on dialogue. The protagonist goes to Character A, who gives them a bit of information, and then they go to Character B, who gives them some more information, and so … Continue reading In the Study. With the Candlestick: How to Revise Dialogue-Heavy Scenes

Hello friend! Today I’m going to talk paragraph structure, mostly as it applies to description, by doing something I haven’t done since college—close reading! I’ll examine V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic not only because it’s a gem of a book and you should read it and write a review on Conglomerate-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but … Continue reading Building Palaces Out of Paragraphs: Sentence Linkage in V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic