One of the best things about the Florida Writers Association is its cornerstone philosophy: Writers helping writers. Beginning writers learn from experienced writers. They become experienced writers themselves, and teach the next generation of beginning writers. Knowledge is passed down, writer generation to writer generation, year to year. I took what other writers taught me, and I’ve taught it to countless writers myself. That’s why I like writing conferences: we’re learning to become experts from other experts, people who have … Read More »

I love co-authoring books. For one thing, they’re so damn huge, it can be overwhelming. And if you’ve got a publisher’s deadline looming overhead, it can be comforting knowing that you have a partner you can blame when things go wrong to cut your workload in half. Two of my books had a four month completion window, each clocking in at 15 or 16 chapters. It would have been a full-time job for a single writer, but with two of … Read More »

When it comes to writing books, nonfiction is probably one of the easiest to organize and create. We’re not saddled with different storytelling structures and models. We don’t have to deal with character back stories, plot twists, or worry about building a new universe. There are a few different ways to organize a nonfiction book, depending on your subject matter and your purpose, and knowing how you’re going to organize the book can make the thing so much easier to … Read More »

Dialogue can be tricky for many writers. The way we talk and the way we think doesn’t always look right on the page. New writers often struggle creating dialogue that doesn’t sound stilted, forced, or just plain weird. When I first started writing, I was terrible at dialogue. It sounded unnatural, it went on too long, and I wasn’t sure of the rules of formatting. So I started paying attention to the dialog I read, I practiced it by using … Read More »

Despite what some people say, you can absolutely learn to be funny. No one is born with it any more than you were born with the ability to write. And it’s something I can teach you right now. I’ve been a newspaper humor columnist for over 21 years, and have written several humorous radio plays, stage plays, and short stories. I’ve also had long discussions with other humor writers about different humor techniques, and my father was even a humor … Read More »

As we publish and promote our work online, we have several security issues to contend with: Protecting our online properties and identities, avoiding being scammed and tricked through email, and even ensuring that our blogs and websites aren’t hacked by people whose idea of a good time is to ruin someone else’s work. Writers, especially if you’re not very tech savvy, are vulnerable to all kinds of cyber attacks, hacks, and scams. And if you don’t know how to protect … Read More »