As a “serious” writer for only a few years, there’s much I still need to learn. I’m hoping to be traditionally published, which comes with its own suite of exciting and nerve-wracking challenges. Though I’ve only queried two books, I’ve learned several (painful) lessons about querying too early. Every writer’s path differs, but I’d like to share what I’ve learned in hopes it will help someone else. Below, I’m sharing...

We are voracious readers, each devouring several mystery books every week. We cheer the protagonists with laudable qualities; we love to tickle our sleuthing abilities in complex whodunnits; and we feel fulfilled by satisfying endings. Murder mysteries are simply the most energizing genre. When done right. Here are nine scenarios that ruin the plausibility and consistency of your novel. Such situations grind your readers to a halt, focusing on the ridiculousness...

Writer’s block. Just thinking those words can give a writer nightmares, but we’ve all been plagued by this inevitable phenomenon at some point. It can take days, months, or even years to get past this dreaded obstacle, and there’s no one-size-fits-all method for dealing with it. However, there are some techniques I’ve found to be useful over the years, and though this is by no means an exhaustive list, I’d like...

A few years ago I joined a bunch of writing groups on Facebook. I wanted to see what writers were talking about—I wanted to understand what questions they were asking in hopes that I’d learn how to better help my clients and students. I jumped in here or there to offer support or weigh in when someone was asking for feedback. But it didn’t take long for me to start...

Welcome to Scribbler’s author spotlight series — an interview with our subscription box‘s monthly author! Each month, we’ll interview the author of our featured book to help you learn a little more about them and their writing process. This month’s spotlight is on Annette Chavez Macias. Their novel Big Chicas Don’t Cry, is our September read. You can find Big Chicas Don’t Cry for sale anywhere books are sold. Four cousins navigate love, loss,...

Creating worlds from scratch is tough work. Fun and fulfilling, but tough. This means that sometimes our writer brains and Creativity Well get depleted. We’ve used up everything we had and we can’t even remember the word for the washer thingy in the kitchen! I like to think of the Creative Well as a real stone well, like from the “Jack and Jill went up a hill” story. It’s tall...

You brainstormed and drafted for months, edited every word to perfection, and read your own scenes so many times over that you started to hate them. But you got there. You have a polished manuscript. Your blood, sweat, and tears are enshrined into those pages. When you then have to hand it off to a beta reader, it feels like you’re sending your vulnerable, newborn baby out into the world!...

There’s something about taking a personality test and seeing if the results actually match up with who you are. Growing up, I would go straight to the quiz section of any magazine (remember holding and reading an actual magazine?), and even now, I can’t resist a Buzzfeed quiz (yes, I want to see if the quiz-maker can correctly identify my zodiac sign based on the way I like my coffee)....