If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the writers in your life, look no further! I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite gifts for writers to help get you started. 1. Freewrite Traveler All writers sometimes struggle with staying focused on getting those words written instead of scrolling through social media,  … Read more

All writers, at some point or another, will face this debilitating dilemma: I have an idea for a novel! But is it worth writing? If you’ve taken my Develop Blockbuster Ideas that Sell Online Course, you know that a strong idea for a novel is just as important as how well the novel is written.  … Read more

Here’s a little secret. Readers don’t like reading about perfect heroes who have all their stuff together. Perfect heroes without any flaws or problems whatsoever are bo-o-oring. Not to mention, completely unrealistic. (I, for one, have yet to meet a human being whose life is entirely flawless.) . So if you want to create a  … Read more

Desperately in need of a good title for your book, screenplay, paper, article, or short story? Yeah, been there. I find that, for me, titles either come right at the very beginning (along with the idea) or not until the very last minute (i.e. the book is about to be printed and my editor is  … Read more

Not all scenes or chapters come to us fully formed, with witty dialogue, striking metaphors, beautiful prose, and perfect structure. Wouldn’t that be nice? For me, more often than not, scenes come to me in chunky, choppy bits and pieces. A dialogue exchange here, a nice description there, a sentence or two about how the  … Read more

More than fifteen novels under my belt and I’m STILL learning how to write and revise. Case in point: when working on the fourth and final draft of SKY WITHOUT STARS, the epic young adult space opera based on Les Mis that I co-wrote with Joanne Rendell, I was forced to solve a problem I’d never  … Read more

I was on a panel the other day with a group of very talented authors and the inevitable question popped up that seems to always pop up on writing panels: “How do you deal with Writer’s Block?” I was ready and armed with my standard answer (almost all of which can be found in this writing tip  … Read more

  Let’s face it, our characters are our babies. We birth them. We raise them. We sometimes even instill them with a few of our ticks and personality traits. That’s why it’s perfectly natural for us to want them to go out in the world and do nothing but succeed, just as we would with  … Read more

My first piece of advice to anyone who wants to write a novel is to start with an outline. But I know that’s easier said than done. Especially if you’re writing a novel for the first time, or if you’ve always considered yourself a “pantser” (a writer who writes by the seat of their pants)  … Read more

Not every scene makes it into the final book. Here’s a never-before-released prologue that I wrote for A WEEK OF MONDAYS that was deemed “entertaining, but not necessary.” It was definitely a darling that I had to cut but the book was already long and my editor and I both agreed that it wasn’t completely  … Read more

If you’re a writer you know it. It’s in your blood. In your DNA. You see stories everywhere. You live in a world of words. I meet writers all the time who say, “Well, I’m trying to be a writer.” Or “I’m an aspiring writer.” That’s like saying, “I’m an aspiring human being.” Don’t let  … Read more

Happy New Year everyone! To help you achieve those writing-related new year’s resolutions, today I’m sharing with you my 5 tips for improving your fiction writing…instantly! These are tips and tricks you can implement today, on the very next scene you write and it will instantly improve your writing. And if you want more where  … Read more

A WEEK OF MONDAYS, my new young adult novel is out in the world! Hoorah! The book is about sixteen-year-old Ellie Sparks who finds herself reliving the same horrible Monday over and over again, in which her boyfriend breaks up with her. And although yes, that does sound horrific, it’s actually a comedy! Click here  … Read more

When I look back at the 185 rejection letters I got from agents when I was trying to get representation for my very first book, I find one common theme throughout. And it usually looked something like this: Great voice! No story. Granted, that original book never sold and I never went back to revise  … Read more

WRITERS! Take heed! I want to share with you an amazing new place for writers to get their YA romance novels published!!! Introducing…SWOON READS! Swoon Reads is an imprint of Feiwel and Friends and Macmillan Publishing (my publisher!) but it’s more than just another imprint.  Swoon Reads is a community of readers and writers sharing  … Read more

When a newly published author asks me for advice, the first thing I usually tell them is, “Don’t read reviews.” Then, I almost always throw in the addendum, “especially don’t read Goodreads reviews.” Today, an article spread across the web and Twitter that likens some particularly harsh Goodreads reviews to “author bullying.” After publishing six  … Read more