We’re constantly updating our articles to bring you the best advice on writing, editing, publishing, and marketing your book. This article was originally published on May 13th, 2014. By its nature, fiction is imaginary. It may comment on the real world, feel true to life, and even invite strong emotions, but it’s still fiction. Accordingly, few writers expect their readers to truly believe, …
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I Judge Short Stories: Here Are 5 Ways To Improve Your Chances
Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a digital marketplace that connects authors with the best resources and professionals to help them self-publish. Savannah works on the Reedsy blog and helps judge the weekly Reedsy short story contest, which means she has read thousands of short stories for nearly 100 contests. Here’s her advice on how to make your story stand out. Despite its pithy …
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Your Quick And Easy Guide To Editing Dialogue
Let’s talk dialogue. Whether you’re writing fiction, non-fiction, or something in-between, it’s likely that, at some point, your characters are going to start talking. That’s your book’s dialogue, and what’s tricky about it is that it comes with its own set of rules, tangential to regular prose. That’s right; if you edit your dialogue as if it’s the same as all the other writing, you’re likely …
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5 Ways Harlan Ellison Can Help You Improve Your Writing
Harlan Ellison was a giant of speculative fiction. The author of more than 1,800 stories, essays, and articles, dozens of teleplays and movie scripts, and winner of eight Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, five Bram Stoker Awards, and two World Fantasy Awards, among others, Ellison is remembered both for his own writing (including the short stories ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’ and ‘“Repent, …
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5 Things You Should Know If You’re Writing About The Internet
The internet is a huge part of modern life, making it an essential part of our depictions of modern life. But while most of us are familiar with our comfortable corner of the web, the internet as a whole is a vast, complicated space that has changed quite a bit since it entered public consciousness. Some of the ways we used to think about the internet no longer apply, while many realities of …
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How To Write Characters Who Actually Like Each Other
In fiction, any kind of relationship is possible. There are stories of forbidden love, undying vengeance, infernal temptation, and life-affirming rivalry. Each studies part of the human condition, finding truth and insight in the way we interact with those around us, but what about when people just… like each other? It’s something we encounter every day, but that doesn’t make it easy to write, …
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