Author Interview with Lisa Mangum
Today we welcome Lisa Mangum to our blog. She will be leading our first ever, “Writing the Middle Grade or Young Adult LDS Novel” workshop. Editor, author, teacher, is there anything Lisa can’t do? How...
View ArticleShould Writers Outline?
Pantser or plotter, which one are you? Do you write by the seat of your pants? Rather, do you plan out scenes or the whole book in advance? I used to be a pantser, writing with a general notion of......
View ArticleWriting Tips Tuesday
For our Writing Tips Tuesday today we welcome, Carol Lynch Williams. What’s the number one writing tip you can give aspiring authors? Be consistent. If you write steadily, you’ll finish a book. Then...
View ArticleAuthor Interview with Dean Hughes
Please welcome Dean Hughes to our blog today. He will be teach an Advanced Writing Workshop. It’s going to be an amazing class! How did you begin writing? I’ve always written. At four I started...
View ArticleWIFYR Writing Moment with Michelle Hubbard
I’ve been mulling. Mulling and perseverating, actually. What conference moment should I share with you? A writing tip from the amazing Cynthia Leitich-Smith? Or maybe when I told Matt Kirby that I was...
View ArticleWriting Tips Tuesday
Happy Writing Tips Tuesday, everyone! We asked Steve Fraser, “What is your best writing or illustrating exercise to help someone get stronger as a writer or illustrator?” Steve Fraser’s writing tip: “I...
View ArticleAuthor Interview with Carol Lynch Williams
We’d like to welcome our fearless leader, Carol Lynch Williams, to our blog. Thanks for answering our fun questions for today! How did you begin writing? I have always been a writer. Since I could hold...
View ArticleWriting Tips with Dean Hughes
Today, the talented Dean Hughes provides us with a writing tip. What’s the number one writing tip you can give aspiring authors? Don’t ask too much of writing. Getting published rarely brings you fame...
View ArticleAuthor Interview with Kathi Appelt
Today we welcome, Kathi Appelt, author of many books including The Underneath. Thank you, Kathi! How did you begin writing? When my first grade teacher informed me that she thought I would grow up to...
View ArticleWriting Tips Tuesday with Kathi Appelt
We asked Kathi Appelt, “What’s the number one writing tip you can give aspiring authors?” Her writing tip is: Write like your fingers are on fire. The post Writing Tips Tuesday with Kathi Appelt...
View ArticleWIFYR Does NaNoWriMo
Bruce Luck Hey, WIFYR writers. Hope your writing’s been going well since the conference. November is almost upon us which means NaNoWriMo is about to begin. The annual writing event is a fanatical...
View ArticleNaNoWriMo–Writing Goals or Writer’s Block?
We’re almost at the end of the month. How are you doing on your NaNoWriMo goals? Even if you made a huge to-do list or word count that now seems more daunting than defrosting a twenty pound turkey in...
View ArticleHow May We Help You? by The Bensch Wensch
Good ideas — new ways of thinking, of seeing beyond what our eyes behold, of hearing truths — are abundant at various writers’ critique groups, book launches, writers meetings, workshops and classes....
View ArticleTips from an Expert: PD James purloined by The Bensch Wensch
Phyllis Dorothy James (who wrote as PD James) wrote from the time she was a child, but didn’t publish her first novel until she was in her 40s. Celebrated as one of our best crime writers ever, she...
View ArticleLearning (and Loving) to Read
How long have you been a “reader”? What about your children or other children you know? As a full-time teacher in Utah’s public high schools, while my children were young, I did a lot of driving...
View ArticleIs My Book Middle Grade? Or Young Adult? Or New Adult?
Once you decide to write a book, you need to zero in on your possible audience. Who would most love this particular book: Boys? Girls? Kids in elementary school? Older kids in Junior H.S.? Still older,...
View ArticleCarol Lynch Williams’ Writing Exercise: Try it—You’ll Like It.
Carol Lynch Williams, a well-known and *much-published writer and teacher in Utah, has often taught workshops, and has been the engine behind **Writers and Illustrators for Young Readers (WIFYR) for...
View ArticleRules and P.O.V.
A reader once sent me an interesting question about “person” in her story. “My story is in third person. For the most part I’d like the story to be from my main character’s perspective, but is it ever...
View ArticleIt’s All in the Details
Writers! You (we ! ! !) need to notice things; all the tiny, little details. In one chapter of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, she wrote of using the “real details of the way things were and...
View ArticleThe Perfect Book
Have you ever read a book or story you thought was “perfect”? What did it have to deserve such a label? Some years ago, I read a prime example with qualities which make up a “Perfect Book”. And it...
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