Auto Draft

When I started writing seriously, I attacked the challenge of the short story.  The first few times out the gate I remember how difficult it was to hit what I considered the minimum length for a serious story – 2500 words. I worked out characters ahead of time, almost like a role-playing game stat sheet [...]

Long-Term Relationships With Your Characters

One of the things authors decide when they sit down to write is how long and drawn out their relationship will be with particular characters.  There are short stories, novellas, novels, and then – at the far end of the spectrum, you find trilogies and the continuing series.  Each of these involves a level of [...]

First, you need an idea

by Alexandra Sokoloff

When people ask authors, “Where do you get your ideas?”, authors tend to clam up or worse, get sarcastic – because the only real answer to that is, “Where DON’T I get ideas?” or even more to the point, “How do I turn these ideas OFF?”

The thing is, “Where do you get your [...]