Lynne Curry
Many novelists reach a moment when their manuscript feels like a marathon without a finish line. The middle sags. The characters stall. Or life interrupts and the once-exciting story now feels like a long, uphill climb.
Flash fiction are stories typically under 1,000 and often much shorter. Writing these short pieces can feel like stepping out of a crowded room and into fresh air. You still chase emotion and meaning, but you do it in a form that demands speed and bold choices.
Since January 2026, I’ve sold nine short stories, many of them flash. Over time, I’ve published twenty-nine short pieces. These flashes have strengthened my writing, expanded my readership, and kept my website lively while my novels make their way toward publication.
Turn your book into a movie.
Is it possible for “submission” and “empowerment” to sit comfortably together when speaking about traditional publishing? I say yes. Here’s how to set your attitude to survive this rite of passage with your spirit intact.
I’ve always been impressed by the author who can sweep the reader away with a magical opening sentence. Some may believe the first sentence is nothing more than the first of many other sentences. But writers worry a great deal about their first lines, as they should: A well-written opening can launch the reader out of port into the open sea of story, eager for adventure.
I felt completely lost when it was time to revise my first manuscript. There were countless books, articles, and classes available on the art of drafting a story, but few seemed to focus on revision. 
Learning how you write a book is like finding your way in a pitch black room full of furniture. You can learn by barking your shins, but there are less painful ways. 
Janet Roberts
Monica Cox
You’ve been told to build your platform. You create a website and start sending out newsletters. You announce your upcoming book; you share the launch, the win.
If you’re an author looking for a new way to market your books, you may want to consider Pinterest. The social media platform currently has 553 million active users, mostly women between the ages of 18 and 34. Unlike traditional social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, Pinterest functions more like a visual search engine, a place where people go to find solutions and inspiration. 
Your book won’t sell itself no matter how good it is. We spend years writing and rewriting, agonizing over character development, plot, and just the right turn of phrase. Eventually, we publish and then what? Sit back and wait for the world to anoint our book baby as The Great American Novel?
Beta readers are an important part of a writer’s revision process. After we draft and revise a manuscript, our characters and story worlds become a part of us. As a result, it can be difficult to recognize when important elements haven’t made it onto the page for the reader. Here is where a beta reader—an early reader acting as a stand-in for your eventual target reader—can help.
This is a question I always pose to my creative writing students. Many are earnest, excited, anxious adults who hope to write a novel. They arrive in the classroom with crisp blank notebooks and their favorite pen (as instructed), but what they really bring are their dreams. They set them down gently in the scarred chairs of the high school geography classroom where we meet.
Back in the days of dial-up Internet, and long before the rise of social media, there was blogging. For writers especially, blogging gave us an outlet, an opportunity to sharpen our skills, to tell stories, and to hone our voices. We wrote about whatever meant something to us. And we blogged to connect with readers and each other long before the world became overconnected.
