by Bentley Clark
I have a confession to make: I don’t know what to write. Now, I don’t mean that I don’t know what to write for this column—although that is a monthly challenge and the source of much teeth gnashing.
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Writing In No Time
by Chris Eboch
So many things demand our time—job, spouse, children, volunteer work, housework. It’s tempting to say, I’ll write during vacation, or when the kids are back in school, or when the kids leave home,
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Revising Fiction: Is it Show? How can you Tell?
by Kirt Hickman
You’ve heard it before: Never tell something you can show. This is a difficult concept for many new writers, but it’s crucial. It lurks beneath a multitude of self editing sins: problems ranging from passive voice to information dumps and narrative summary,
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The Best Writing Advice from SWW Authors
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
~ Emerson
What better writing advice than that given by a published author?
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Magazine Writing: Bagging Your First Assignment
by Melody Groves
And why aren’t you writing for magazines? I can list the reasons if you can’t come up with your own. No new ideas. Don’t know which magazine would take my article. No clue how to begin.
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An Interview with Author Parris Afton Bonds
Parris Afton Bonds is the cofounder and first vice president of Romance Writers of America, as well as a cofounder of SouthWest Writers. A New York Times best-selling author, she has published over 40 novels and volunteers to teach creative writing to grade school students and female inmates.
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Taking Notes (or Something) in Mexico
by Betsy James
I carry a journal with me, always. Especially in Mexico.
We drove out of Ciudad Oaxaca in an old Nissan pickup with no seat belts: myself, another American, and three Mexican teachers intent on providing reading material for indigenous students.
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Embracing Writer Fatigue
by Olive Balla
Listen. Hear that? It’s the non-sound of laptops and word processors sitting on desks and collecting dust. It’s the white noise of writers everywhere giving up, of promising writers being sucked into the black hole of Writer Fatigue.
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Riding a New Roller Coaster
What can I say? This is my first attempt to do anything at all with a blog on a website. I’ve always wanted to, but haven’t had the time to learn. Suddenly I find I’ve accepted the challenge to learn how to make this work.
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The Writing Life: Basic Principles from Dear Abby
by Sherri Burr
In a “Dear Abby” column appearing in local newspapers on September 10, 2013, the famed advice columnist received this query:
…I’m wondering if there is a basic principle you abide by in order to help guide you when giving advice.
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