Reducing your word count can serve more purposes than saving money with your editor or meeting contest guidelines. The more you hone your writing style, the stronger your writing becomes.

Often, you’ll hear the terms protagonist and antagonist followed with the connotations of good and bad, respectively. What happens though, when you write a story with a villain as your main character? Is that character a protagonist or antagonist?  Protagonists are described as leading characters, primary figures, and even champions of a cause. Antagonists are described as adversaries or figures who get in the way of another. Where in either of those definitions do you see the words “good guy” or “bad guy”? Ah, you saw the word “champion,” yes? Well, champion of a cause. Does that mean good orRead more “What is the difference between a villain and an antagonist?”

When I started taking journalism classes and writing for my college paper, I found myself improving as a journalist faster than I was improving as a novelist. It didn’t make sense to me; I only got into journalism because it was related to writing, and I wanted to learn everything I could about the industry, media, and otherwise. During one of our news conferences, in which we attended talks, participated in contests, and listened to speakers, I finally figured it out. One of the speakers was a novelist who lectured on putting an idea to paper without confusing yourself. Basically,Read more “Do you need a writing mentor?”

The roles of writing coaches, formatters, and proofreaders seem pretty self-explanatory when you first glance at them, however, they’re often misunderstood. These three people are essential to your manuscript’s publication and require you to know who you’re hiring. Before making the assumption that your editor will do all of these things for you, take the time to read more about each of the roles, and then decide whether or not you need these services. Some of you may have already decided you what you do and don’t need, however, after reaching the end of this post, you may change yourRead more “Finding an editor: writing coaches, formatters, and proofreaders are more than they appear”