by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 22, 2019 | Antagonists, Characters, First Drafts, The Craft of Writing
**Today is the last day to enter the 100-word contest! Get your entries in by 9pm central. Details here.** Recently, I’ve come across something in a few different young adult and middle grade books that’s bothered me: The child character is absolutely...
by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 15, 2019 | Writing, Writing Contests
I’m super excited to announce that another 100-word contest starts today! Here’s how these contests work: Your entry is the prompt sentence + 100 words. The prompt for this contest is: This might be difficult to hide. This should be the first sentence of your...
by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 8, 2019 | Author Life, Writing Life
There are pieces of the writing life that get easier the longer you’ve been on your journey. Writing a synopsis, for example, used to be a multiple-day process with lots of grumbling. Now I’ve learned what makes it enjoyable for me (doing it before the...
by Stephanie Morrill | Apr 1, 2019 | Author Life, Guest Posts, Writing Life
Taylor Bennett is a dandelion-wishing, world-traveling lover of books, words, and stories. Based in the PNW, she dreams of seeing the world and writing stories set in unique locations. Although she dreams of traveling to many different places, her favorite destination...
by Stephanie Morrill | Mar 25, 2019 | Mailbag, Plot
Today’s fantastic question comes from Fiona, who says: I’ve gotten some feedback that some events in my novel are too big of a coincidence and that the plot feels unnaturally lucky or unlucky to have happened to a character. That made me wonder: what makes...
