An Interview with Author Shirley Raye Redmond

Shirley Raye Redmond is an award-winning author of dozens of nonfiction children’s books, several historical romance novels, and over 450 articles. Two of her children’s titles have sold more than 200,000 copies each. Her newest release, Viper’s Nest,

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Are You Ready to Write a Novel in November?

by Bentley Clark

Shield-Nano-Blue-Brown-RGB-HiResEvery November, in addition to working my day job, shopping for the holidays and baking pies, cookies and other autumn goodies, I write a novel.

A fool’s errand? Perhaps, but I am only one fool amongst many.

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The Hollywood Touch: Screenwriting Tricks for Novelists

by Chris Eboch

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Authors dream of having their books made into movies. But even if your story never hits the big screen, you can make your work better by thinking like a scriptwriter. Apply these screenwriting tricks to writing your novel and breathe new life into your work.

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Dialogue Compression: The Key to Realistic Dialogue

by Kirt Hickman

Realistic dialogue is one of the most important things to achieve in your writing. It’s also one of the most difficult. When people talk, they ramble, they pause, they repeat themselves—they say all sorts of unnecessary things.

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About Character and Setting Development

By E.H. Hackney

Image “Cracked Diamond” courtesy of George Hodan / PublicDomainPictures.netMost books on writing advise us to construct complete, detailed descriptions of our major characters before we begin writing. This is worthwhile, but I believe it is easy to overdo. Yes, I put together character sketches in advance.

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The Genius of Alfred Hitchcock (and what writers can learn from him)

by Lorena Hughes

RopePoster2The other day an old college friend of mine invited me to the Hitchcock Film Festival in a downtown theater I thought had closed  years ago. This art-deco building (circa 1927) has been presenting some of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous films every Friday night for the last two months.

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An Interview with Author Gale O’Brien

Gale O’Brien is a cancer survivor, motivational speaker, wellness advocate, and the award-winning author of Transformation: Creating an Exceptional Life in the Face of Cancer, available in both English and Spanish. She is also a Certified Professional Life Coach who empowers others to pursue a passionate,

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Dialogue Punctuation Basics

by Dodici Azpadu

061957-firey-orange-jelly-icon-people-things-people-singing200You’ve worked hard on several drafts of a writing project, and now you’re ready to review your dialogue punctuation.

End Punctuation

We know declarative sentences end with a period and interrogative sentences with a question mark,

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An Interview with Author Joyce Hertzoff, Part 1

Joyce Hertzoff retired from a profession grounded in fact and science and now uses the power of the pen to write mystery and fantasy stories. Her first novel The Crimson Orb was published in 2014 by Phantasm Books,

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The Writing Life: Adapting Your Work

by Sherri Burr

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I was fortunate to conduct one of the last television interviews with the late Navajo artist R.C. Gorman in 2004. I asked him about his propensity to exploit his copyrights by turning a single oil painting into lithographs,

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