By Gila Green The secret of getting ahead is getting started—Mark Twain Three deadlines coming up, dinner's not made, and you haven't even hit the grocery store yet? The short answer might be fast food or begging a colleague to take one of your assignments, but the long-term answer is to improve your efficiency. Here are eight tips to help you save...
This indirect or left-branching sentence builds tension and creates excitement because it slows down the pace of the story. by Gila Green Have you ever seen any of these comments in the margins of your work? Slow downUnevenLacks climaxFlat If you answered "yes," you should immediately browse through your writer's toolbox of literary devices for pac...
Are your notions about your birthplace outdated? By Gila Green Diction. Slang and other everyday words sneak into our vocabularies. If you don't live and write in the same language, it takes an extra effort to root foreign words out of your work, unless they're part of your story.Names. Many writers spend a great deal of time enhancing their work w...
What you need to work on in your writing isn't description it's imagery. By Gila Green If you write fiction you've probably been told dozens of times to include vivid description, work on your description, and not to forget description. Likely, you've also been reminded not to overdo it on the description. Unfortunately, being told to in...
By Gila Green We live in a publishing world that not only craves categories; it demands them. These pigeonholes are like gasoline for the modern manuscript, which cannot even move through cyberspace to an agent's inbox without the fuel labeling supplies. For those who guide writers on query letters, one of our first lessons is to help authors defin...
After writing three Jewish historical fiction novels (White Zion, Passport Control, and my as yet unpublished novel A Prayer Apart) here's my best advice for Jewish historical fiction writers: Sometimes research provides more than one answer and you'll have to use your best judgement: Someone may call you out on it but don't let that stop you...
Thanks so much to James Tormey, the host of Don Jimmy Reviews for having me on his site today. It's always a pleasure to spend time with book lovers all over the world. The Secret to Inspired Writing By Gila Green I don't get ideas. I feel ideas. Let me explain. I'm commonly asked where my ideas come from for my fiction. It's a leg...
by Gila Green Novels are peppered with males and females, young and old, witches, aliens, and murderers. Yet many writers still feel limited to topics they know inside and out. What a great pity. I published a young adult novel about a teen heroine who takes on an elephant poaching ring in South Africa's Kruger National Park and you know what? I'm ...
My "five worst writing tips" was such a popular post that today I'm re-posting more writing advice regarding what could easily have been worst writing tip number six: use the five senses. Do I disagree that we should use the five senses in our writing? Not at all. It's the number five that I disagree with. Read on to find out why. Beyond the 5...
There's more advice for writers out there than ever. You need to know that 1. A lot of it is bad 2. A lot of it doesn't apply to you; it was that writer's experience. 3. It doesn't go away, but happily, you can ignore it. Here are my top five worst pieces of writing advice: 1. Never respond to a potential publisher with mor...
1.Learn something that has nothing to do with writing--often. Take a gardening course, photography, dance, archaeology, religion, anything. Career writers must have compelling things to write about. Am I the only one who notices how often novel characters are magazine editors, journalists, and writers? Dentistry, law, accounting, welding, real esta...
If you read Passport Control, White Zion, or No Entry, please leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It can be one line. It's tremendously helpful for all authors for people to leave reviews because people are naturally attracted to what others recommend. Here are some of my ideas for a one line review: I recommend this ...
"The job of the fiction writer, as I see it, is to get inside someone else's skin." by Julie Zuckerman I'm happy to present a guest post today by author and fellow writer in Israel, Julie Zuckerman. Welcome, Julie! Bio: Julie Zuckerman's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of publications, including The SFWP Quarterly, The MacG...
"Saying goodbye is the hardest part of life. We say goodbye to loved ones, to lost dreams and causes, to the crumbling expectations of life. The same is true with past books." by Rene Denfeld by Tara Lynn Masih I'm honored to have Tara Lynn Masih on gilagreenwrites. Not only does she have much wisdom to share, she has a new novel out, My Real Name ...
Like millions of other authors, I write because I have a message I'm passionate about; I want to express myself to the world. The problems with messages are long and complicated: people suffer from denial and refuse to hear them; they don't buy books to read sermons; preaching can engender resentment, come across as heavy- handed, and read as thoug...
This is a repost by fellow Stormbird Press author Rick Hodges. I enjoyed it so much I'm sharing it with you. You can read more about Rick on his site and check out his new book To Follow Elephants. I'm delighted that we are both writing about elephants and older teens traveling to Africa. I am thrilled to be publishing my first young adu...
Wanted to share this quotation I read today from prose editor at Tahoma Literary Review, Yi Shun Lai. "Years ago, I decided to stop telling young creatives that they should find what they're passionate about. Now I tell them to hunt down what they're willing to work towards. (I stole this from someone on LinkedIn and can't remember who ...
In 2013, I published my first novel, King of the Class (KOTC). Three months later, I wrote a post titled, "What I Learned from Publishing my First Novel." It was a necessary integration of what I'd gleaned after three months of full-time, dedicated hard work—the kind of twenty-four-hour work after which you can't even think about the topic. I...
I'm thrilled to be hosted on Joanna Penn's The Creative Penn today. Thank you so much for having me on your site. Writing Tips: Writing Beyond The 5 Senses The most useful way to show what you want to say is to tap into the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing and get into the 'why' behind each sense. In other words, you must ...
I've been publishing in literary magazines since 2005 and, I admit, I'm addicted. I've had four novels accepted for publication to small presses, an offer of a young adult series and yet I always have at least a handful of submissions out there, far beyond what's considered the usual expiry date for writers. I can't seem to stop, though that's craz...
He sighs and holds his glass up remembering things that happened years ago. I try to diminish myself in my chair, so he'll see his memories and share them instead of seeing me."I begged your father to run away to the kibbutz with me. So many young people were doing it then. There was no food in Jerusalem. But he was the oldest, and he wouldn't leav...
I can't sum up how I feel about libraries better than this. I already have a vlog on writers block. Here's another take. This is my prompt to remind me to write a longer piece on podcasts. For now, This American Life podcast is an excellent cure for writer's block.
A Phone Call from Mom "Do you know what your brother did when he finished reading your novel?" my mother asks. "He WhatsApped me," I answer. "'Just finished your book. Great read'." I reread my brother's exact words from my phone. There is a cheery note in my voice because I've already won this conversation. With this book publication there will be...
Publishing Your Story While publication is never guaranteed (unless you're self-publishing, but that's another post), there are a number of things you can do to help your story find a home. Start with this seven-point guide: 1. Don't rush. Is your story ready for publication? One of the biggest mistakes new writers make is sending out th...
A word after a word after a word is power." –Margaret Atwood Writing isn't just for writers, it's for anyone with a small business to promote. You might think as an author and book editor that most of my clients are other authors. Think again. People don't write new books every month. Many people take years to finish a first draft. If I waited unti...
My new article is out in the latest Wrapt. On Balance: The Biggest Mistake Working Mothers Make Got hot nit gekent zayn umetum, hot er beshafn mames. "God couldn't be everywhere, so He created mothers." A Yiddish proverb I won't write about work-life balance or for many of us, work-life-work balance. It's not because I think you've read...
When I tell people I teach a virtual flash fiction course, I sometimes get strange responses, even laughter. Isn't flash fiction just really short fiction? What's the point of taking a specific flash class? No, flash is its own genre deserving of its own class, and it's still underrated as a way to break into publication. I say "still" because I ta...
A big thank you to fellow Canadian scribe Kathy Steinemann for hosting this guest post on her site today. When my youngest child was finally old enough for me to leave her without feeling guilt-ridden, I decided to attend a writing seminar in Montreal—an ocean way from my home. You know, those seminars you're always reading about and thinkin...
Thank you Kathryn Schleich for having me as a guest on your blog. 'Show don't tell' is common advice. It's been unpacked in dozens of blogs. Luckily, this won't be one of them. That's because it's repeated so often, it crowds out other important writing errors such as, pace. Pace is all about rhythm and speed in a story. Think: how much time has e...
