Special Feature

How To Plot A Novel

I often said that writers are of two types. There is the architect, which is one type. The architect, as if designing a building, lays out the entire novel at a time. He knows how many rooms there will be or what a roof will be made of or how high it will be, or…
Issue One Hundred Eighty Five Special Feature

Writing Is My Job.

Written by Jen Jones Every writer, at some point in their career, has heard the words, “Writing isn’t a real job.”  Only another writer can truly understand the frustration of hearing those words and being made to feel as if your dream is only a waste of time.  It can be even worse if someone…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Seven Special Feature

How To Cope With Feeling Unsupported as a Writer

When I released my first novel in 2013, through an independent publishing platform, I naively expected my family and friends to buy it in droves, share it with all of their friends and loved ones, write reviews, and encourage others to do the same. I soon realized how mistaken I was, and got on with…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Six Special Feature

3 Free Writing Residencies

Written By Tilly Horton “Every kind of creative work demands solitude, and being alone, constructively alone, is a prerequisite for every phase of the creative process.” ~ Barbara Powell Stepping out of our daily grind from time to time can help to refresh perspective and reinvigorate creativity, and residencies can be a great way to do…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Five Special Feature

How Walking Helped Me Become A Better Writer

Written By Julie Guirgis Modern studies have shown walking may be one of the most valuable means of achieving states of literary and philosophical enlightenment. Many writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing. When we walk, the heart pumps faster, circulating more blood and oxygen to all the organs, including…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Nine Special Feature

3 Essential Self-Publishing Skills Every Writer Should Develop

Written by Benjamin Cheah Successful self-published writers combine the skill sets of a writer and a publisher. The latter is often overlooked. This article focuses on three essential publishing skills self-published writers need to develop – before they publish their stories. Even if you’re not planning on self-publishing, having a solid grasp of these skills…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Four Special Feature

3 Obvious Mistakes New Poets Make

This article is devoted to talking about and examining common mistakes new poets make. I should clarify the phrase “new poets” as used in this context. What I mean is poets new to publishing their work in literary journals. I actually made these mistakes for the first decade I wrote poetry. I did not understand…
Issue One Hundred Eighty Special Feature

7 Ways to Win Over Romance Book Editors

Writing romance is not easy. The world’s largest publisher of romance fiction receives about twenty thousand unsolicited romance submissions per year. Editors often say that they judge the potential of a manuscript based on the opening lines. It isn’t surprising then that only a handful of manuscripts get requests for a full submission. Even then,…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Three Romance Special Feature

Five Reasons to Attend a Writers’ Conference

By Loretta Bolger Wish I had barely arrived at my first writers’ conference when I learned my most valuable lesson: it had taken me too long to attend one. If your inner skeptic has kept you away, you aren’t alone. You are, however, missing out on some of the best knowledge, motivation, and fun a…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Two Special Feature

Four Prestigious Fee Free contests

Written By S. Kalekar Here are four prestigious free-to-enter writing competitions. They cover literary fiction, arts writing, cultural diversity, and science fiction/fantasy. Note that three of the contests require already published books and one is only interested in unpublished work. PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: This is one of America’s foremost awards for literary fiction, and…
Issue One Hundred Seventy One Special Feature

The Novice Mistake Most Writers Make When Submitting to Publishers

There is one mistake that most authors make when submitting their work to literary journals and magazines for the first time. It is a mistake I made the first time I submitted. It is a mistake that most of the serious authors I know made. What is that mistake? Is it a terrible cover letter?…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Eight Special Feature

Three Anthologies Seeking Submissions: Science Fiction, Circus, and Superheros

Written by S. Kalekar The following three print anthologies are all paying markets and they are all seeking submissions on very different topics. Meerkat Press is accepting submissions for Behind the Mask, a superhero anthology with a twist; they are looking for ordinary, day-to-day issues faced by superheroes – growing up, relationships, growing old, career…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Special Feature

How Often Should You Expect Rejection?

Various readers have emailed me over the years asking about how often they should expect to be rejected. They phrase it different ways. Sometimes they ask if a ratio of four rejections to every one acceptance is good. Sometimes they ask if one acceptance a year is good. The one single factor that affects your…
Issue One Hundred Seventy Special Feature

Why Writers Need To Be Readers

“You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I…
Issue One Hundred Sixty Nine Special Feature

How to Write a Good Third Person Biographical Statement

When you read submission guidelines, which vary from literary journal to literary journal, almost all of them will require that you include a brief biographical statement (or bio). Usually they require that the bio is in the third person and to be 50 words or less. These bios are tricky to write.It is hard to…
Issue One Hundred Sixty Eight Special Feature

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