Write a Book Scene by Scene

A Different Approach to Writing Stories
by Marg McAlister 

Not everyone can start writing a novel at the beginning and work straight through. Some authors prefer to pour energy into writing good scenes, then link them up later. For authors who hate to plot, but love to lose themselves in writing story scenes, the 'scene by scene' method is an inviting way to produce a finished novel. Note that this method does not give writers permission to produce sloppy fiction. It simply means that they can hit the ground running by immersing themselves in writing good scenes at the beginning, then tweak later - when the book starts to take on a life of its own.

TV Script-Writing Trick Helped Organize YA novel

By Alan Gratz

Flipping wistfully through a travel guide to Japan, I came across a photo of a man in a kimono throwing out the first pitch at a 1915 Japanese baseball tournament. 1915? I thought American GIs had introduced the sport during the Allied Occupation after World War II. I learned instead that Japan had baseball as early as 1872. The end of the samurai era had overlapped the beginning of the baseball era. Baseball? Samurai? This could be the idea that would get me published! There was only one problem: how to manage the mountain of research it would take to write it.

40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers

by Simon Kewin
If you use Twitter, you’re probably already familiar with the idea of hashtags. These are simply a way of categorizing particular tweets by including within them a keyword prefixed with the hash or “pound” (#) symbol. So, for example, tweets containing writing advice will often contain the “#writetip” tag. The point of this is to make it easier to find all tweets containing writing advice : you just search for “#writetip”. Similarly, you could find a stream of publication tips by keeping an eye on tweets with “#pubtip” in them.

How Not to Create a Villain

by Anne Marble 
Villains aren't as important to the romance novel as the hero and heroine, but in many stories, they are crucial. The villain's actions can drive the he

ro and heroine to succeed against all odds, force them to make difficult decisions, even drive them apart for a while. However, romance writers walk a delicate tightrope when creating villains. If your villain is dull, the readers won't be all that interested in your story, even if your hero and heroine are wonderful. On the other hand, if the villain is too interesting or has too many scenes, he might distract the readers from the hero and heroine -- and they should always be the main focus of a romance novel.