Writing Tips

Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues, and Readers, Whether you celebrate Christmas as a commemoration of Christ’s birth, or you observe other customs, I wish you a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and a Joyful, Healthy, Productive 2026 I’ll be taking … Continue reading →

Angela, Becca and I hope you’re having an amazing holiday season full of family, friends, good food and special memories. We are so grateful for your visits, kind words of support, and trust in us. We love serving the writing community through this blog, One Stop for Writers, books, and teaching. We’re tucking Writers Helping Writers in The post Wishing You a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By Janice HardySometimes, we get so focused on what’s supposed to happen in our novel, we forget to consider what could happen.Unless you’re incredibly lucky, at some point in your writing life your creativity is bound to stall. The novel you loved yesterday feels flat today, all your ideas sound “meh” and nothing really excites you about your current manuscript. It happens, it’s scary, but there are ways to knock your muse out of her slump and get things moving again.Sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to look at the novel from a different perspective. Changing your perspective can shake loose preconceived ideas and allow you to see the story and characters in ways you hadn’t considered before. These different views often spark ideas that breathe new life into a novel that needs it.Continue ReadingWritten by Janice […]

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or a learned go-to strategy, a mechanism helps them cope with the stress of the moment or escape the hurt of it. But if the character The post Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Maladaptive Fantasy appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Want to win editorial feedback and take your opening hook scene from good to great? Well, my writerly friend, you’re in luck! It’s time for our monthly Phenomenal First Pages contest. In this draw, you can win… Editorial feedback on the scene with your Chapter 1 hook. This contest is closed. Please try again next month. The post Win Editorial Feedback on Your Chapter 1 Hook appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

A fun thing that sometimes happens is this: you eat a food, any kind of food, and then after eating that food, some manner of stomach bug — a bonafide gut goblin — besieges your gastrointestinal castle, and sooner than later, you’re bent over, howling paeans and prayers to the porcelain altar. Now, you and

Ho, Ho, Ho! Santa Here I was looking at Kathy’s Christmas list the other day, and saw that she wanted someone to create a redundancy quiz for her. Hmm, I thought, that sounds like fun. But nobody would want to … Continue reading →

All About Character Motivation Character motivation is key in any good story. A great character wants or needs something for a reason … and they must struggle to get it. Your characters should drive the plot through their own choices, behavior, worldview, backstory and actions. Character motivations may range from the good or neutral, through to the outright The post See Why Three Types of Character Motivation Matter appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By Janice Hardy If you’re going to trick your readers, proceed with caution and a lot of skill.During a world-building panel I once did at the Space Coast Comic Con, we had a brief discussion about tricking readers. Some authors on the panel were for it, some against it, and there were strong opinions on both sides.It made me think about what makes a good twist vs. a bad trick. Because some novels trick readers and we love the author for it, but others trick readers and we refuse to ever read that author again.I think it’s the Dallas vs. Newhart difference.For those who weren’t watching a lot of TV in the 80s, both shows had huge twists that surprised viewers. One worked, one did not.In the show Dallas, a beloved character (Bobby) died in a season finale. The next season proceeded without him, developing storylines and […]

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or a learned go-to strategy, a mechanism helps them cope with the stress of the moment or escape the hurt of it. But if the character The post Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Codependence (Caretaking Aspect) appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

This is not a review of the work or the life of actor and rapper Ludacris, aka Christopher Brian Bridges. It is also not a review of the apple called Ludicrisp, which is a different (and better, and I believe earlier-in-origin) apple developed by North Star Orchard. This is not a linguistic examination of the

When first learning how to write, we often focus on the skills of writing craft—grammar rules, point of view, etc.—but storytelling skills are just as important. Some might even say they’re more important. After all, we can probably think of popular books that suffer from poor craft, such as repetitive sentence structures or wonky dialogue The post What’s More Important: Storytelling or Writing Craft? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Not Great News I recently received an e-mail from HubPages, where several of my articles are posted. Dear HubPages authors, HubPages has been a fantastic ride and accomplishment among all of us over the past almost 20 years. We wanted … Continue reading →

So here’s where we’re at in APPLETOWN — I’ve still got a half-dozen or so reviews to fire off here, though for most of them I’ve done videos over at Instagram. And I’m hoping to get a couple more apples yet from the local orchard (their Goldrush was running weirdly late this year), and I’ll

Becca and I have a case of Christmas Mania right now because having our own bookstore means we can wrap up terrific deals for you in ways we can’t with Amazon. So, drum roll, please! All Digital Single Thesaurus Books Are BOGO Maybe you have a few holes in your digital shelf, or you want The post Writers Helping Writers® Thesaurus Guides Sale: Buy One, Get One Free appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

The bats are out of the bag — Wanderers is hitting in a limited edition from Earthling Publications. Landing Spring 2026. Written by me (obvs). New awesome intro from Paul Tremblay. Amazing art by Francois Vaillancourt. It’s 7×10″, slipcased, over 700 pages, full color printing, smyth-sewn binding, 3-foil stamping to the leatherbound cover, signed by

Every year I (try to) do a GIFTS FOR WRITERS post, which is to say, a post speaking not to the writers per se but to those fortunate (or unfortunate) souls that have writers in their lives. Writers need a particular kind of love! We have too many notebooks already! We probably don’t have enough

I liked a lot of cool stuff this year! I liked books, movies, music, games! The end! Huzzah. We did it. I’m going to go eat an apple now. *stares* *waits* Ugh, fine. Fine. You probably want me to, like, conjure names of things, which honestly is very hard for me, really for two reasons:

By Janice Hardy If you dread starting a revision, you’re not alone. But you can do this. Finishing a draft is a huge accomplishment, and one every writer should be proud of, no matter what stage of their career they’re at. But after the draft is done, it’s time to edit (or revise), and sometimes, that can be a bit overwhelming. I know both new and established writers who struggle with this, so this isn’t a matter of skill or talent. There’s nothing wrong with you if you dread having to face a manuscript that needs editing. I love the editing process, so a lot of writer friends (and readers) have come to me over the years seeking a little editing advice (so much so I even went and wrote a whole book on it). Here are some tips on how to make the editing and revision process a little easier to manage: Continue […]

When a character suffers emotional pain, the brain’s response is to stop the discomfort, and often this results in a coping mechanism being deployed. Whether it’s an automatic response or a learned go-to strategy, a mechanism helps them cope with the stress of the moment or escape the hurt of it. But if the character The post Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Anticipation appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.