by Lisa J. Jackson With so much information online, it’s getting rare to go low-tech for information, but in researching magazines and newspapers lately, I’ve come to appreciate the up-to-datedness (I made up this word) of an actual masthead. The masthead (also referred to as a nameplate) is the portion…
by Yvonne Perry Some people do not use dashes in their writing because they are not sure of how to use them correctly. However, proper use of dashes can add zest to your writing so why not learn the proper way to punctuate a sentence with them? Whenever you write…
by Pamme Boutselis Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Amanda Bennett is an executive editor at Bloomberg News, directing special projects and investigations. She is the author of several books, including “In Memoriam,” “The Quiet Room,” “The Man Who Stayed Behind” and “The Cost of Hope,” a memoir about her family’s…
Christina Hamlett has written 30 books, 146 stage plays, 5 optioned feature films and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and interviews. She’s also a professional ghostwriter and script consultant for stage and screen. 1. The agent works for you; you don’t work for the agent. 2. Always send exactly…
A prolific writer of more than 40 novels, Elmore Leonard authored westerns such as “3:10 to Yuma” early in his career before embarking on crime novels. Many of his novels, including “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Captives,” “Get Shorty,” “Jackie Brown” and “Out of Sight,” have been adapted into movies. Leonard…
by Yvonne Perry Many a writer aspires to be a published author – by any method, whether self-publishing or being accepted by one of the “big six publishing houses,” such as Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Random House or Simon & Schuster, or one of their imprints (subsidiaries). What…
by Michelle Dunn From writer’s block to “Wicked” — author Gregory Maguire offers five tips to help you get the ink flowing. Write every day. Journal, postcard, Facebook entry, sonnet, screed or soliloquy. Doesn’t matter. Every day. Read every day, but read outside your comfort zone. If you hate poetry, try…
Kari DePhillips is the owner of The Content Factory, an online PR firm that specializes in web content writing and social media marketing. Before she started TCF in 2010, she was a freelance writer for about five years. She has often worked as a consultant, starting and staffing writing departments…
Joyce Carol Oates is an award-winning author with over 50 novels to her credit, including the national bestsellers, “We Were the Mulvaneys,” “Blonde” (a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize) and the “New York Times” bestsellers, “The Falls” (winner of the 2005 Prixe Femina Etranger) and…
by Bonnie Neubauer I wish I had known: Creativity is a cycle. You can’t have constant output. At some point you need input. So, if you are on a roll for a chunk of time, don’t be frightened if, all of a sudden, the flow stops. It just means you need…