This is a guest post by Sierra Delarosa. Sierra is a freelance writer, musician and content writer for Global English Editing.

11 Science-Backed Ways Writing Improves Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

For many of us, writing is a practical tool. We use it to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and experiences with other people, usually through email and social media. However, considerable scientific research is showing that writing has exciting health and wellness benefits too.

When you write you let go of pent up stress and sorrow, which is a positive way to release these emotions.

When you write expressively and honestly about your experiences and how you feel, you can also notice patterns of how certain emotional conflicts arise, giving you insight into the source and nature of your malfunctions.

Among the many benefits of writing, you become a better communicator, your immune system is boosted, blood pressure is reduced…

by Tonya R. Moore

There’s all this hubbub floating around out there lately, conflicting theories of all the DOs and DON’Ts of what it takes to be or become a successful author.

Some time ago, I saw some Perpetual Writing Advice Giver actually tweet that if you’re a writer promoting your work and you don’t have this many (double digit) thousand followers on Twitter, you’re simply not trying hard enough. To add insult to offense, said party didn’t even have a half of that “strongly suggested” following.

Originally posted as the Dun Writin’—Now Whut? series on this blog, EDITING 101 is a weekly refresher series for some of you and brand new for others.

Courtesy of Adirondack Editing

Dashes

Many authors have trouble with dashes. It’s hard to know which one to use and when to use it. There are several different kinds, and they all have different usages.

Qualification: Since I deal with mostly United States fiction, my style guide is The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). Other style manuals have different rules for dashes, especially if you live in another area of the world, such as the UK or Australia. This international blog is actually based in the UK, so feel free to ask questions in the comments (letting me know where you’re located) and I’d be happy to give you individualized answers. The following information is taken from the sixteenth edition of CMOS…

As the months pass, I still feel satisfied with the publication of The Tales of Draco: Rise of the Dragon. This was a big step for me. However, like every author, there are some aspects in the novel that I wish I could change. The biggest frustration I have with the book is how many misprints I find now and again. To tell you the truth, misprints in books are more common than you think. I see them in even the most popular of books, but it seems there are more errors than there should be in Rise of the Dragon, and there are a few reasons why. Just to be clear, I am not pointing my finger at anybody or criticizing whatsoever. Accidents happen and the best thing we can do is learn from them.

The biggest cause of misprints is because the book is self-published. Being in school…

by Jordan Jolley

If you devote time for the quality of your story, then your book’s potential can go far.

There are two very common questions people ask me: “How long did it take you to write your first book?” and “Are you done with your second book?”

Video games have always played well with other media. Can word-based interactive fiction do the same and maybe help you promote your novel or other work? Absolutely. But first some history.

Many early games were, if not outright adaptations, heavily inspired by popular franchises of the time. The licensing could be a bit dodgy. But games complemented  other media and vice versa, and creators learned to use tie-ins in both directions to flesh out imaginary worlds.

As early as 1984, the cult-classic war game Lords of Midnight, by the late Mike Singleton, came bundled with a prequel novella that detailed the game’s premise and backstory, written by the same author. It is an auteur game.

More recently, the original Myst prequel trilogy of novels sold pretty well, if not nearly as briskly as the game. And if you look on Scribd these days, books set in the Warcraft, Halo or Mass Effect universe…