By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Whenever I speak about the value of social media, writers groan, frown, and complain. Too many writers are not willing to get past the learning curve needed to develop their brand. My response is always a focus on a writer’s life requiring flexibility to learn craft,…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Emulating writers whose careers have soared into bestselling status provides us with amazing role models. We look for a road map with precise steps and no detours to accomplish the same goals. But every writer is different, and the destination isn’t always achieved the same way.…

by Alycia W. Morales     @AlyciaMorales As conference season approaches, preparations loom around the corner. Now is not the time to procrastinate. Now is the time to prepare for those fifteen-minute appointments, pitches, cramming all that class material into your brain, and networking with other writers, agents, and editors. [tweet_box design="default"…

by Bethany Jett, @BetJett When we’re writing a novel or nonfiction book, article, or blog post, we have one audience in mind: Our own. Yet the rules change when it comes to certain social media platforms…ahem, Twitter and Facebook. With those platforms, we need to consider what our audience’s audience…

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Writing killer emotions means the writer understands a character’s unique temperament, wants, needs, flaws, desires, goals, challenges, and backstory. With these traits, a writer fills the pages with the character’s deepest of feelings. Experts state that up to 90% of communication is nonverbal. Character driven body…

by Alycia W. Morales     @AlyciaMorales Word count is tremendously important in today's publishing world, especially since readers have shorter attention spans than back when reading was one of the few forms of entertainment available at home. What is one to do when the word count of their latest creation is…