Writing Tips, Workshops, and Inspiration from Bestselling Authors

Every writer has been asked—If you could go back and give your younger fledgling-writer self one piece of advice, what would it be? It’s asked by other writers, at book signings, at presentations, during conference panels, everywhere. So? For me, it would be: Get out of your own way and tell your story your way. Took years to learn that. So, I popped this question our Outlier Instructors:  Hank Phillippi Ryan : Don't worry! Everything  will be fine. You don't know exactly how

Next time you’re so lucky as to be at the beach, spend a little time watching seagulls. No, I’m serious. Just watch them. If you do that a while, you’ll see one of them lean its head down and take a look at its feet. Soon enough, you’ll see another one do it. Why do they do that? Time spent looking at feet is time that could be spent fishing or begging for your French fries. (Or just flat out stealing them. What are you gonna do? You don’t have wings.) A scientist of my acqua

Advice? Every single author's journey is different, just as every single author's working routine and life is different. You may be able to work an hour three days a week, or all day every day, or different hours on different days. There are families in our lives, things that happen. . .but writing is like riding a bike! (In a way) If something happens, you get back on the bike. If you're disrupted in your work or your schedule, you just get back to it. The thing is, never gi

"But it really happened. I swear." This is the defense fiction writers offer when someone says their story isn’t believable. “That could never happen,” they say. But, it could. It did. Still, their disbelief lingers.