by Shannon Dittemore | May 17, 2019 | Scenes and Scene Structure, The Craft of Writing, Writing
As a modern fiction writer, your words have to do some serious heavy lifting. Shorter attention spans combined with endless entertainment options mean that we have a very condensed amount of time to hook a reader. On top of that, it’s just good storytelling to ensure...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 10, 2019 | Goals, Mailbag, Writing
Today we have a fantastic mailbag question! Please keep your writing and industry questions coming. There’s a link at the bottom of our home page just for questions like this. Jill, Steph and I take turn answering them and it gives us a feel for where the...
by Shannon Dittemore | May 3, 2019 | Brainstorming, Writing Exercise
Back by popular demand, I have another writing exercise for you all! Do you know why I love writing exercises? Because introducing you to an exercise is like handing you a tool. My hope is that in trying a variety of exercises, you’ll find a few that work well...
by Shannon Dittemore | Apr 26, 2019 | Description, Writing
My family joined a local archery club this year. I don’t have a bow, so I use the time for writing while my husband gathers up the kids and all their gear and hauls them to the range. The three of them have taken to repeating a phrase Mel Gibson’s character says in...
by Shannon Dittemore | Apr 19, 2019 | Editing, Getting Published
A while back, I spent a few weeks talking about agents and query letters. To follow it up, I thought we could talk about what it looks like to be a contracted author working with an editor at a traditional publishing house. As a refresher, agents acquire projects they...
