Meaningful Writings

Fairy Tales Can Come True

Misty sat at the computer, dressed in the same rumpled, pink-flowered, cotton nightgown worn to bed the previous night. A now cold cup of coffee sat next to the dusty keyboard along with a half eaten egg sandwich on wheat toast. Her fine, short brown hair would invite any mamma bird to make a comfortable home for her nestling.

Too often an author forgets to include subtle hints within the prose and/or dialog passages that let the reader know what the characters sound like when they speak. While it is not necessary for all characters within a novel to have clearly delineated distinctive ?voices?, it is a good writing habit to develop your main characters to the point where when they talk, the reader can ?hear? their voices.

Calling all serious authors!

We are pleased to announce, Phil and Debra Harris of ATTMP will be our guest on The Six Unsynchronized Souls radio show, March 15th, 2011.  They have agreed to give writers an opportunity to query ATTMP, live on-air.

The show airs 8PM EST, 7PM CST, 6PM Mountain, 5PM PST. Here is the link:

Express Yourself

I don’t know many authors who have not ventured into joining a writers group of some sort. In fact, the publishing world, its agents, authors and editors highly recommend an aspiring writer join such groups.

When I bega...

A blurb is the book description you find on the back of a book or online to describe a book's contents. Most run several paragraphs, but some publishers want them shorter or in a special format so be sure to check with your publisher's guidelines before you begin work.

Blurbs are the second most important selling tool you have for your book, so you want it to grab the reader's attention.

July 13, 2010 | 7:37 am

Janet Fitch is the author of "White Oleander" and "Paint it Black," and she teaches writing at USC. It seems like every time I run into her at a reading, she introduces one or two or more of her students who she has encouraged to come along, people ...

One of the most asked questions by authors, is under what genre does my novel fall? The truth may be that your novel falls under two or more genre's, but most agents want to know the main genre. Below are some descriptions of different genre's. If asked to select just one, choose that which makes up the majority of your story.

• Determine your topic. Exactly what are you going to write about? Brainstorm for ideas if you have to. When writing for wikiHow, you may even wish to refer to requested topics for ideas. It shouldn't matter that the same type of article had been written...