Writing a book review is a great way to get your first publication credit or expand your publication portfolio. As a blogger, I’m always on the look out for shortcuts you can take from my writing experiences, pitfalls, and wins. So when I wrote a book review for one of my favorite college professor’s new novel, the […]
How to Survive Blogger Paralysis
Writing is an exposing sport. If we do it right, we strip ourselves down to our naked humanity just to show the world what it looks like to be human, to be this human in particular. And if we’re lucky, revealing our particular humanness reminds the rest of us that we’re not alone in all […]
7 Ways to Build Writing Confidence as a New Writer (Reader Question!)
This writing question is from @NinaGPineda who asks: Hi Mandy! I see writers on these sites I want to post my writing on be carefree about punctuation or even plot and still manage to make the story interesting and get lots of reads. How do I get over the feeling that my writing is lacking […]
This Formula Solves The ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ Writing Dilemma Once And For All
So I’m working on this short story I started for some Glimmer Train contest or other. But it grew like a weed all unwieldy, and now it’s burst through its word count limit and its deadline. And I wish that was this story’s biggest problem. Its biggest problem is that I’m still struggling to balance ye old show versus […]
Finding Balance as a Beginning Writer
If nothing is perfect the first time we do it, why should writing be any different? I see the Writing as Talent myth at work in too many places. We writers love that myth for so many reasons, even while it pushes our writing dreams further away. I’ve said this before. It’s worth repeating. That established writers […]