on Writing Forward: It’s not easy to find time to write. Even professional writers get caught up in paperwork and marketing and have to scramble to get the actual work of writing done. But with careful planning and better time management, we can all learn how to produce more writing. Here are seven writing productivity tips that will help you write more, even if you have a packed schedule. Continue reading HERE

on Jane Friedman site: Today’s post is excerpted from Quiver, Don’t Quake: How Creativity Can Embrace AI by Nadim Sadek, founder and CEO of Shimmr AI, an AI-powered advertising platform. I met Sadek in person at NYU’s Publishing Institute in January, and found him a warm, self-aware, and very human founder of an AI startup. His latest book tries to balance an optimistic take on how creative people can use AI, with a lucid assessment of its risks. For my readership, I’ve chosen to excerpt a portion about the risks. Continue reading HERE

on Writing Forward: In the writing world, adverbs have a bad reputation for being weak and causing unnecessary clutter. But sometimes adverbs are necessary, and other times, they liven up a sentence or strengthen a description. Today we’re going to explore adverbs and take a look at why they can be problematic and when they are essential. Continue reading HERE

Saturday, October 11, 2025 In the predawn stillness, after a night of tossing and turning, with unpleasant dreams during the scant moments of sleep, a woman finally drifted in peaceful slumber.  Ho…

on Fiction University: How to spot and fix those sneaky repetitions that weaken your prose.. Aside from a great one liner, a declaration of love, or a juicy piece of gossip, most people don’t like to hear the same thing over and over. This is doubly true for readers, and repeating yourself in a novel can make your story feel redundant, stale, or even poorly edited.

If you’d like to be included in this slot, please get in touch: [email protected]. Poems can be up to 60 lines and prose 2000 words. If you’d like to add a short bio and photo, then great. Al…

l love to start a novel. This is the fun part of writing for me — as it is for most writers I know. My muse has uploaded a shiny new story into my head and I’m all revved and ready to go, so I get those words down as fast as I can. (Then I usually bog down halfway through, but that’s…

“Teagan Riordain Geneviene’s Speak Flowers and Fans: A Dictionary of Floriography and Fanology is just that kind of book — one that enchants, teaches, and lingers.”

Speak Flowers and Fans – a Dictionary of Floriography and Fanology by Teagan Riordain Geneviene Every once in a while, a book arrives that feels less like reading and more like being invited …

Speak Flowers and Fans – a Dictionary of Floriography and Fanology by Teagan Riordain Geneviene Every once in a while, a book arrives that feels less like reading and more like being invited …

Greetings! Beem Weeks here again. This month, my post is for those who may be in the early stages of their writing journey. We’re looking at POV. Point of view (POV) is the perspective from which a…

on Writers Helping Writers: Writing a strong and consistent character voice is one of the best ways to make your story stand out. A unique voice tailored to your character makes them feel real and more memorable to readers. But voice is tricky to get right. Too little attention to this important aspect of storytelling results in all the author’s stories sounding the same because they’re written in…

on Writers Helping Writers: Are you afraid of using the weather in your writing? If so, you’re not alone. After all, if not careful, weather description can be a minefield of clichés. The sunny, cloudless afternoon at the beach. The gloomy rainstorm at a funeral.Overdone setting and weather pairings can lie flat on the page. Then there’s the danger that comes with using weather to mirror a character’s inner emotional landscape.

On Helping Writers become Authors: Not every story needs a protagonist who undergoes a sweeping, life-altering transformation. Many memorable tales hinge on smaller, quieter shifts in perspective—or even on characters who stay true to themselves from beginning to end. Writers often hear that character arcs must be dramatic to be meaningful, but the truth is arcs exist on a spectrum.

Today’s author is no stranger to BMR. Many of us enjoy her highly creative blog serials and amusing posts about her sweet Scoobies – cats Daphne and Velma. Welcome Teagan Ríordáin Genev…

on Writing Forward: Most writers keep a journal of some kind to jot down ideas, scenes, thoughts, and questions. Journals can be used in many different ways. However, one of the most traditional uses for a journal is to write about one’s own life. Often, this type of journal is called a diary. It’s not always easy coming up with topics to write about, and writing about oneself is difficult for many writers (just ask any writer how hard it is to write a bio). Surely, journal entries can be more than simply recounting the events or routine of each day. Continue reading HERE

Beat sheets are amazing tools that can guide you to write a great story, but unfortunately, they also have their pitfalls. For those unfamiliar with the term, a beat sheet is like a story template, and it can help you brainstorm and/or map out a sturdy structure for your story--generally speaking, anyway. Continue reading HERE

I recently completed another manuscript and, despite never having success with this before, decided to pitch it to literary agents. Hope springs eternal, they say. Of course, they also say there's no fool like an old fool. But I digress. ​Other than the two who assisted me with contracts I secured on my own, I am not a fan of literary agents.

on Jane Friedman site: One of the most frequent pieces of advice authors hear from agents and editors in making their work stand out is that it needs to have voice: strong voice, a unique voice, a compelling voice—or even just be “voicey.” Voice is arguably among the most important factors in catching the attention of agents, editors, and readers. 

New writers receive so much advice early in their journey, the last thing they need is inaccurate advice from a bot. Imagine if you hadn’t established your community, hadn’t befriended …

on Jane Friedman site: As you are no doubt aware, dear reader, 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. It’s worth taking a moment to think about what makes her novels stand the test of time. In my work with writers who are revising, we focus on six pillars of revision: Story Question, Structure, Cause and Effect, Character, Curiosity, and Language.

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 Hello, all.   It’s no longer a secret… Winter is coming — Again.  For years, I’ve wanted to combine the entire series “Dead of Winter” into …