By Penny Reeve There is a character in my young adult novel Out of the Cages, called Purna. For the majority of the novel she does not speak. Despite being a young woman, she behaves like a child. She rocks and cowers and watches the world with wide frightened eyes.…

By Ramona Richards  @RamonaRichards Like a lot of publishing professionals, I sometimes fall into the “just keep writing!” trap. Those of us who have been at this a while sometimes become focused on the “perseverance narrative.”  [tweet_box design="default" float="none" inject="#writing #writingcommunity"]The Joys of Writing by @RamonaRichards on @BRMCWC[/tweet_box] Writing is…

By James Hannibal @jamesrhannibal The Search Engine Swamp. The Wikipedia Wastelands. The Data Doldrums. At the center of the author’s pirate map to story treasures, we find a dense bog where the blotted scrawls of the cartographer’s quill read, “Here be time-eating monsters!” It’s the Research Bog. Stay on the…

By Lynn H Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn In these posts, I often talk about various facets of the writing life. But this month, I want to recommend a book to you that isn’t about the craft, but that I think could be quite meaningful to you in your life as a writer and…

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson The other day I was talking to a friend of mine and this person confided that she was afraid she didn’t have what it takes to be a writer. “I’m just not good enough to get a book published, and I don’t know if I ever will be.”…

By Aaron Gansky @ADGansky Some time ago, I had my Creative Writing students draw up a map of the town in which their story takes place. I had them label streets, buildings, homes, shops, etc. The response was greatly varied, from island villas to battleships, to starships, to fantasy worlds…