Guest Post

Image: a mylar balloon designed to look like a sunflower stands moored to a patch of dirt amid utility poles in front of a dingy brick wall.

Expect the Creative Process to Be Uneven and Messy

Getting stuck is a lousy feeling, but a normal part of the messy and uneven creative process. Here are some tips for working through it.
Image: a hand is applying a single red pin to a point on a map

The Perfect Guide for Where to Submit Your Writing (Does Not Exist)

We often long for perfect guidance about where to submit our writing, but there’s no substitute for getting to know the landscape ourselves.
Image: a woman with a computer on her lap leans her wheelchair back against a brick column in a brightly lit modern office building.

6 Tips on Writing Disabled Characters

Writing characters with disabilities doesn’t have to be difficult. It only requires a little work to understand how things look from the character’s position.
Image: an opthalmologist holds a diagnostic device shaped like a pair of eyeglasses outfitted with adjustable lenses.

Free Yourself from Rewriting Paralysis

When the revision process meanders off-course, leaving a project stranded, here are some tips for regaining momentum.
Image: white foam tops the teal waters of a dramatically-arced ocean wave.

Scene and Structure: The Wave Technique

To keep readers engaged, build each scene toward a breaking point then reveal something new about the characters, their world, or the plot.
Image: a colorful mosaic in Amsterdam depicting two figures surrounded by flora, fauna, and architecture, made from many different types of tile.

Turn Your Short Pieces Into a Finished Nonfiction Book

If you’ve amassed a heap of assorted essays, flash pieces, chapters, and ideas, here’s a step-by-step guide to shaping them into a book.
Image: the base of a lightbulb from which the glass bulb has been broken and is missing.

It’s Time to Interview Your Own Inner Diminisher

If an inner voice criticizes your creativity, consider addressing the judgy elephant in the room. To whom does that voice belong?
Image: a painter uses a palette knife to add color to a heavily-textured canvas so that facial features begin to emerge from abstraction.

Key Methods for Direct and Indirect Foreshadowing in Your Story

In story as in art, what’s hinted at in the shadows can add intriguing layers of depth and interest.
Image: hundreds of books form what appears like a storm funnel

3 Aspects of Managing the Clutter-Tidiness Continuum

When a project itself is confusing to its creator, here’s a quick look at ways to unclutter stuff, people, and the words we write.
Image: layers of a mountain range, appearing as darker-to-lighter shades of blue, disappear into the misty distance.

How to Find Your Memoir’s Narrative Arc (There May Be More Than One)

One author successfully pitched her memoir based on its thematic point, but shaping it into a satisfying narrative arc was much tricker.
Image: Saint Jerome in His Study by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1480). A bearded man writes at a desk, his head propped on one hand, facing the viewer.

How Deliberate Practice Can Develop Your Writing Skills and Talent

Current research favors regular nurturing of a skill, as discussed in this excerpt from Deliberate Practice for Creative Writers by Jules Horne.
Image: looking up at a circle of blue sky from within the center of a circular parking garage.

Get Out of the Silo

One writer found herself chained to an idea that just wasn’t working, and needed fresh perspective from a colleague in order to break free.
Image: a toy train laden with cargo sits in front of a juncture where three branches of tracks result in dead-ends but two others remain available.

Avoid a Creative Slump By Writing and Publishing in a Different Medium

When trying to best tell a particular story, consider that some medium other than words on a page might be the right solution.
Image: rows of vintage alarm clocks and timers are arranged on wooden shelves.

Don’t Write Every Day: 3 Things to Do Instead to Finish Your Book

It’s tempting to agonize over the best way to get the words down, but all that matters is to choose a project, write it, and ask for support.
Image: a little girl sits on the lap of a woman, reading a picture book together.

The Surprising Complexity of Picture Books

Protagonist, antagonist, rising and falling action, arc of change, emotion—all must be developed in a picture book, and in under 500 words.
Image: Golden-hour sunlight filters through artistically-irregular cutouts of a floor-to-ceiling screen along the edge of an ocean-view patio where chairs are arranged and casting long shadows.

When It Lights Up–and When It Doesn’t

It’s an artist’s job to trust that deep satisfaction from our creative work arrives by keeping at it even when we feel stuck.
Image: the pages of an open book, showing a variety of design elements such as standard and italicized text, pagination, and special insets.

Should You Hire a Professional Designer for Your Book Interior?

Even if you decide to design and format your own book, it’s important to be aware of fundamental elements of book composition.
Image: a miniature hardcover book sits atop a standard sized one

What If You’re Writing Novellas? Now What?

When publishers and agents show no interest in novellas, contests might be a more reliable path to publication.
Image: an illustration of a young woman sitting atop a stack of giant books, typing at a laptop computer, while around her head float an array of icons that represent her dreams and aspirations of academic success, winnings prizes, and professional credentials.

What the MFA Does and Does Not Do for Aspiring Novelists

The director of an MFA program wrestles with how to make it a more useful degree for aspiring commercial novelists.
Image: a weathered wooden sign reading "Welcome Camp Manager" hangs from rusted chains against a backdrop of greenery and wooden fences.

Create Compelling Suspense and Tension No Matter What’s Happening in Your Story

Triumphs are most compelling when the hero has to fight for them, so even quiet stories need plenty of obstacles, challenges, and uncertainties.
Image: in a darkened room, a lighted wooden match has been cracked and bent at two points so that it resembles a person sitting on the edge of a tabletop.

In Defense of Giving Up

Becoming a mother was the motivation one freelance writer needed to abandon the toxic hustle culture by which she defined “success”.
Image: a man's hand holds a cut-out in the shape of a speech bubble, while his other hand holds a pen preparing to write a message on it.

Writing the Author’s Note for a Novel

An Author’s Note can be the most direct way to communicate your book’s themes to editors, marketers, librarians, teachers, and readers.
Image: tarot cards arranged face down in straight rows, except for the Ace of Swords and 2 of Swords which are turned face up.

5 Myths About Tarot That Storytellers Should Know

Like love and creativity, the best things in life are intangible. It’s the same with intuition, which the tarot helps us access and develop.
Image: the colorful railcars of a child's toy train are derailed from its wooden track.

My NaNoWriMo Was a Train Wreck

One author discovers that when it comes to heavily-researched historical fiction, one’s ducks should be in a row before tackling NaNoWriMo.
Image: illustration of a woman sitting on the ground, with her hands covering her face. The landscape around her is filled with shadowy plants and tall, tree-like arms and hands, towering menacingly.

Doubting Yourself Is Not Failing

We do not live without a persistent undercurrent of questions, both tiny and tremendous. Doubt is part of us, so let us make peace with it.