Writing Tips, Workshops, and Inspiration from Bestselling Authors

New on the Outliers GET TO KNOW: Outlier and Bestselling Author Michael Grumley Join Outliers GET TO KNOW hosts DP Lyle and Kathleen Antrim for a conversation with Best-selling Author Michael Grumleyon the Outlier's YouTube Channel and Podcast Series. 📺 WATCH: 'Get to Know' on Outliers YouTube Channel 🎧 LISTEN: Outliers Podcast Series On Your Favorite Outlet

Join DP Lyle for an informative chat with James L’Etoile, an Outlier instructor, best-selling author, and former Associate Warden, Hostage Negotiator, and Director of California’s State Parole System. Learn what really goes inside prison walls. 📺 WATCH: Outliers YouTube Channel: CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLia8l2DJ_EnXVBBYu0gtb1Ijjwkf0f6dn 🎧 LISTEN: Outliers Podcast Series On Your Favorite Outlet: https://www.outlierswritinguniversity.com/shows

When writing a crime story, your antagonist should not be a black and white character—or, as we say in the movie biz, “A Big Heavy”: a one-dimensional, mustache twirling, cackling, maniacal, cardboard cutout-scapegoat.  The best antagonists are “Killers”: layered characters with whom we find ourselves empathizing—maybe even liking to some degree. They could be someone close to you that you thought you knew well. Someone who looks harmless and safe on the outside. Think of tru

Q:     In my story, a police officer is shot while sitting in her patrol car. The assailant fires through the open passenger window, using a.38 caliber S&W. The officer's upper right arm is hit twice. One round lodges in her humerus. A second misses the bone and hits an artery before entering just below her armpit, where it splinters two ribs and punctures a lung. Rounds three, four, and five hit the officer's body armor when she pitches forward. The sixth never leaves the ch

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

Join Outliers GET TO KNOW hosts DP Lyle and Kathleen Antrim for a conversation with Best-selling Author James L’Etoile on the Outlier's YouTube Channel and Podcast Series. 📺 WATCH: Outliers YouTube Channel " GET TO KNOW Series": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo-UZ48ILPXLvlfs0u8Baew 🎧 LISTEN: Outliers Podcast Series On Your Favorite Outlet: https://www.outlierswritinguniversity.com/shows James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his award-w

In my last column , I wrote about writing routines. “Your brain will support habits that facilitate your writing,” I said. “You just have to start them.” This time, I’ll tell you the habits or routines of some established writers—behaviors they’ve found that worked best for them. When John Grisham first started writing, he developed a set of rituals: “The alarm clock would go off at 5, and I'd jump in the shower. My office was 5 minutes away. And I had to be at my desk, at my

Join Kathleen Antrim and DP Lyle for a conversation with best-selling author T. Jefferson Parker on the Outlier's YouTube Channel and Podcast Series. WATCH: Outliers YouTube Channel: GET TO KNOW: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo-UZ48ILPXLvlfs0u8Baew LISTEN: Outliers Podcast Series On Your Favorite Outlet: https://www.outlierswritinguniversity.com/shows T. Jefferson Parker is the author of 30 novels, including Silent Joe and California Girl, both of which won the Edgar Awar