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I remember writing my first letter to author François Bloemhof in 2000. As a young author, I was delighted when he actually answered—and the feeling has never quite worn off when writing to other authors. Writing to another author grows your connections and knowledge whether thanking them, admiring them, or just exchanging like-minded ideas. Here’s why you should be regularly communicating to other writers. Ask for Unique Writing Advice Writing to authors you enjoy or admire could be the best way to answer your own, burning writing questions. I contacted award-winning author Jeffery Deaver (The Bone Collector, The Blue Nowhere) in 2016 asking for some writing advice. I was so impressed that I used his answer in a piece later published in ReFiction. Best-selling author Deon Meyer revealed to me how he created fictional detective Benny Griessel for this article. If there’s something you want to know from a fellow writer or author, visit their website (or publisher), find the email address, and ask. Regardless how famous, they just might respond. On Paper Praise & Reviews François Bloemhof was the first author I asked to review my short story “Bully.” I’ve always been proud of having an award-winning author’s thoughts on my first fiction publication: “I like this story More

I am a big fan of Colleen Welsch at The Freelance Writer’s Guide. She has a big personality, but she is down to earth as well and so darn full of common sense. If I were returning to fulltime freelance writing, she’d be the person I’d go to in order to get back on track. Thanks to a recent post of hers and lots of recent experience I’ve had from writers pitching FundsforWriters, I decided we needed a crash course in how to set up a freelance writer portfolio. You would be amazed at the number of pitches I receive from people who have no website, no professional social media, and no online writing portfolio. They TELL me they are writers. They TELL me they’ve published elsewhere. They TELL me they’ve been freelancing for 5, 8, 10 years. However, without a hardcore search, I cannot find proof of same. I don’t have time for that. So guess what I do? I reject them. I do not have time to research a writer and find proof they are who they are, especially in these days of AI. Our features ask that the writer talk about writing success, and to write about the topic, they More

We are not defined by our rejections….or rather we shouldn’t be. Nobody knows about them . . . or should. We ought to be defined by our efforts and success. Don’t talk too much about rejection, or about trying hard and not getting anywhere. Yet many people want to talk about how hard they’ve tried, how the process isn’t fair (like anything is supposed to be fair). how many rejections they’ve achieved, or how many years they’ve invested into a manuscript that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Nobody wants to hear any of that. Except maybe others who want to fuss about not making it. Is that the energy you want to surround yourself with? When you live in a world where you define yourself by rejection, wasted hours invested, and an inability to make it, you become that person. You don’t live for success. You wait for failure to happen, to appear around every corner. Decide which you want, success or failure, positive or negative, and live it, strive for it, aspire to it. But to make excuses, to fuss about the unfairness of it all, to criticize Amazon and all the booksellers out there, to claim agents only More

Stories about my daily life never seemed like writing that could sell. Who cared who I was or what I had done. But an editor of a publication pointed out that international readers would find my everyday cultural experiences interesting and fresh. I wrote the first feature about daily life in rural Southern Africa—and surprisingly, readers wanted to know more. What I’d thought “regular” experiences were, proved not to be so regular to others. Daily life can be someone else’s unique read. Your Regular Stories Are Unique Living in a rural South African township differs from suburban living: further to stores, minibus taxis, informal traders (or spaza shops), water shortages, and isiZulu—a language I don’t speak much of. However, an editor pointed out that people have little context for pit toilets, water shortages, and amagwinya (deep-fried dough). My daily experiences were indeed unique. So I wrote 365 Days in Inanda, telling readers what living in a rural area away from suburbia was like. Local police wouldn’t drive into Inanda citing bad visibility in lieu of real reasons. Insiders’ views of this area were rare. I had a story to tell, it seemed. Using Daily Experiences As Writing Material Anything you’ve experienced, whether bowling More

I am often asked how should someone start writing. They tell me they’ve always wanted to write. They think about a novel. They would love to write for a living. How did I start? When did I decide I liked writing? Many of these are people looking for Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, then VOILA….arrived. They are writers.   I do not remember when I started writing. I just always have. When I wanted to, I did. Did I start writing because I wanted money? Nope. I wrote because I found writing powerful. I submitted knowing that when I did, I was making a permanent impression. I could open doors or burn bridges based upon how much effort I put into the words. Writing tells the world a lot of things about you, like: How intelligent you are How creative you are How motivated you are How professional you are Writing, honestly, speaks loudly for you without you ever meeting people or saying a word. It’s why you don’t publish, post, or submit without having done a lot of writing, a lot of editing, a lot of thinking about the purpose of the writing, and a lot of study More

I was recently made redundant from my day job so am now, at the age of 56, back out there having to hustle for freelance work. I naturally began to reach out to my so-called network. But I quickly realised that I haven’t been great at nurturing contacts and keeping in touch with people over the years. It’s a bit like my performance on social media. As writers we’re constantly told we need to self-promote, but I always feel uncomfortable and a bit imposter-ish putting myself out there. And as I’ve had two books to promote recently, I’ve been forcing myself to be especially annoying. When networking or posting, I think things like: Surely people are sick of me by now? Is anyone even looking at these posts? I feel like I’m constantly begging it, as my teen daughters would say. I looked up former clients and business contacts, people I once hired or were hired by. But so many of these relationships were so dormant it felt nakedly desperate. There is no easy way to message someone out of the blue after five years and lay claim to a fond friendship that has mysteriously lain dormant until the moment More

Author Raven Digitalis hired me to be their publicity assistant in November 2024. Opportunity knocked and I answered, anxious to step in for the potential fun and experience. While authors frequently need editors and proofreaders, they also would use an extra hand. Here’s what I learned by becoming another writer’s assistant. Writers Hiring Assistants I was lucky. Raven suggested the publicity job amidst promoting the release for his collection Black Magick. We were discussing good fiction when he mentioned he needed wrist surgery, and I needed a side-gig—so why not step in to help? However, if you’re job-seeking, connect with authors via their personal websites. Keep an eye where authors might post advertisements, including Indeed.com, LinkedIn, and even authors’ Facebook or YouTube. You might also post on your own social media about how you are available and what your skill set is. Writers hire assistants for anything they don’t have the time to do themselves. Usually, authors pay directly from their personal pockets, too, not via the publisher, which usually means established authors with potential new releases. But also, many writers don’t realize they could hire an assistant until they’ve met you. Suggest the skill when meeting authors and add the More

Unlike novels, screenplays are not in and of themselves an end product. They’re merely blueprints for something else, like a movie or TV show. They’re a roadmap showing filmmakers how to express a story in a visual medium using tools like cameras, lights, actors, editing and music. They’re not meant to be all-encompassing narratives that explore every nuanced action, location detail, or psychological facet of a character’s mindset. Unfortunately, mastery of this delicate skill of brevity has waned to some degree in amateur screenwriting. Without this proficiency, making the leap to professional screenwriting is all but impossible. What should I include? When introducing a character, a basic physical description must paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Describing your heroine as a “tall, Hispanic female with kind eyes” is good because these are things the filmmakers can shoot. Saying she also “loves basketball” is not, because, well, how could we know that? Instead, think with visuals. Describe her as “wearing a basketball jersey, with NBA posters plastered to her walls,” which shows us she loves basketball. Same rule with locations. Just give the reader the essential information needed to convey the look and feel of the place. Describe an old More

Ello, ello, Hope. Happy New year of the (sneaky) Snake sign!!🧧🎍🧨 I’ve just read your recent email letter (dated January 24, 2025) and have some comments about the article: Using Your Pseudonym, by Alex J. Coyne. What I want to share: it is totally fine to get paid in the pseudonym and it can easily be sent to the bank without waiting for a check reissue. How? By having a business bank account that includes your business name, or in this case a person’s pseudonym is also a DBA. As an artist/creator I became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in1998 and a stage name was offered. Since China Rose reflects a childhood nickname with a fun backstory I choose that. Oddly enough no one else had ever used that name in the history of the Screen Actors Guild. Which has a centurion history for it’s union members. SAG (now SAG-AFTRA) will not allow one actor or actress to use the same name. Once it’s used the system won’t let anyone else take it unless I was to release it. So I got lucky in my mind, I thought yes, Kismet! But almost immediately something else happened. Not long after More

Do you want to hear how an author got published after five years? Do you want to hear how many times they were rejected? Do you want to hear the pros and cons of how they chose their agent, indie publisher, or self-publisher? Do you want to hear about the pros and cons of how they advertise on social media? Do you want to hear about the negative reviews they were getting? Do you want to hear about not getting enough reviews? Do you want to hear about a rival author they clash with? Do you want to hear how they dislike readers who criticize online? Do you want to hear how libraries or book stores won’t shelve their books? Do you want to hear how expensive it is to have a website, newsletter, editor, etc.? Do you want to hear how much a book is without knowing what it is about? Do you want to hear how long it took to write the book? Do you want to hear what got cut out of the story? Do you want to hear how much they earned? Or how much in the hole they are? Do you want to hear how More