by Tonya R. Moore

Rejection bites. That’s the plain and simple truth.

You pour your heart into a story and revise the heck out of it. Then you submit/query and repeat until hopefully, someone finally thinks that you have something worth publishing.

Unless you’re some sort of literary genius whose work always gets accepted on the very first submission, it can become quite a discouraging process.

by Lauren Sapala

Every morning when I open my inbox a landslide of emails from the online writing community pour out. Blog posts, newsletters, classes and programs and retreats. And then I jump on social media and the wave continues: Advice and instructions on character development, plotting your plot, finessing the end and then going back to that first page and polishing your opening hook until it sparkles and shines and catches the eye of every agent with an email address.

Source: Lousy Writer

How old were you when you knew you wanted to be a writer?

I wrote poems, short stories, and a play when I was a small child however my desire was to be a nurse. Hence I did become a nurse and enjoyed a successful career in helping all of my patients. When health issues cropped up and I became home bound (for the most part), my focus turned back to writing. That was in January 2013. Since then I have 14 books published.

As a child, I was mentally, emotionally, and physically abused by my mother, and this abuse didn’t end until her death in November of 2013. Throughout all the cruelties, I knew something better would happen in my life and I knew God was in control. My battered body cried out, but I thought God must be too busy to help me. From that abuse, I went…

Note from Archer’s Aim: I totally agree with this. I also read and write fantasy for a host of reasons and believe that there are some very deep literary qualities that are often over-looked in good fantasy.

Fantasy fiction is often pooh-poohed by academics and intellectuals, but it can whet the appetite for learning.

Source: Children Should be Encouraged to Read Fantasy Fiction | Intellectual Takeout

So you’ve finished your first draft. You’ve let it sit in a drawer for a few weeks. You’ve enjoyed your holidays, made your New Year’s Resolution, and had a thought about the revision process in general, what storytelling is really all about, how structure and plight work together, and some of the technical matters to keep in mind during your rewrite. Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and really get to work! Over the next thirteen weeks, I’ll be sharing my own week-by-week plan for taking a manuscript from first gasp to polished draft. Welcome to my 13-Week Rewrite.

But where do you start?

Why, with a new outline, of course!

“But Mike…!”

I know. “I already have a finished draft!” And, “I don’t like outlining!”

I hear you. If you want to be stubborn about it, come back next week. Your process is…

I’m an editor at Random House, but for the last several years I’ve been writing around the edges of my day job: mornings, nights, weekends, wherever I can grab the free time. I began my first novel…

Source: What Being an Editor Taught Me About Writing | Literary Hub

by Kathryn

What’s wrong with this picture?

‘I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, find my big green eyes crusted with sleep. I brush my beautiful brown hair and check my flawless skin for pimples, but of course I don’t have any, so I don’t need to put on any makeup. Then I walk over to my closet and put on my school uniform shirt and skirt, check my reflection one more time. Then I head down stairs for a delicious, filling breakfast.’

Obviously that paragraph is insipid to the point of hyperbolic, but it’s not like writing like this doesn’t exist.

Remember learning the concept of “show, not tell” back in elementary school?

Yes, it’s still (and always) super relevant.