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Getting into the zone often requires you to make repeated attempts to focus deeper and deeper upon your work. Indeed, now that I think about it, I can recall a couple of occasions when I found myself carried away in my work at a time when I already felt physically and emotionally exhausted.

As you do this you’ll find yourself thrust into an imaginary world where your character must react to stimuli and try to overcome obstacles. It only takes about 25 minutes of doing this for you to reach that Beta-state of consciousness.

Creating that world is a simple trick.  We “create” the world by reporting on it, repeatedly using images, sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that excite the mind and make it feel real.  Very often, to create that world requires us to repeat information in different ways.  For example, if I want to create “rain” in my story, I must have my reader see it coming in the distance, smell the taste of moisture in the air, feel the wet drops as they begin to plop down, and so on.  

We develop strong rooting interest and care more about characters who care deeply about something, who are committed to something.  Perhaps they care about their families, or have a powerful love for their country.  Maybe your character loves his horse, or is uncommonly honest or honorable.

In short, a story isn’t just one idea, it’s a conglomeration—basic concepts about characters, how and why they act, and how others react to them.  If you analyze even a short story, one that is only ten pages long, you’ll find that the author makes dozens, maybe even hundreds of choices regarding milieu, character, conflict, theme, and treatment.

In our Apex writing group, Apex is an umbrella organization that provides services for a large number of writers, but we also encourage writers to do things in smaller groups. For example, some writers are having great success by meeting together for daily writing sprints, or weekly brainstorming sessions or critique groups.  Remember, a writing group is a living, growing thing. It may change over time, and your rules need to evolve with it.

Before you start writing a novel, screenplay, or any tale at all, you should look at two things:  Do you like the basic concept? Will the story sell? In short, before you write anything, you need to take an adequate survey of the field.  

Before you start writing a novel, screenplay, or any tale at all, you should decide a number of things:    1) Do you like the

One perennial need is for novelists to write film or gaming tie-ins. If you are a successful writer, the chances are excellent that all kinds

There are a lot of ways to weave your attribution into your dialog. For example, bestseller John Green will often have well-known characters talk without description, just giving a name before the dialog.

As I imagine the story piece by piece, a novel eventually takes shape.  But I want to emphasize that, for me at least, books don’t

Today’s writing tip is offered by Jan Nerenberg.   The “Green” test for the “F” bomb. What is it and how can you use it

First off, let me explain that any one person might fulfill several roles. In other words, you might be able to fill three or four roles. Just as you can be a loving father, a tough soldier, and a devoted son to your mother, you can fill any of these roles listed below. In fact, to some degree you have to fill all of them. Yet if you are in a group with others who help support you, you may be stronger together than you are apart.

I often hear indie authors—and authors in general—demonizing publishers for doing a poor job of marketing books. The usual complaint is that publishers “Don’t spend

Forty years ago, I was introduced to a nerdy game called D&D, and quickly found myself becoming a “Dungeon Master,” the person who created adventures