#writingcraft — Public Fediverse posts

My latest blog is all about poetry...enjoy!

https://www.jacquigreaves-author.com/blog/a-month-of-poetry

#Poetry #Poem #PoetryMonth #WritingCraft #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #PoetsOfMastodon

My latest blog is all about poetry...enjoy!

https://www.jacquigreaves-author.com/blog/a-month-of-poetry

#Poetry #Poem #PoetryMonth #WritingCraft #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #PoetsOfMastodon

My latest blog is all about poetry...enjoy!

https://www.jacquigreaves-author.com/blog/a-month-of-poetry

#Poetry #Poem #PoetryMonth #WritingCraft #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #PoetsOfMastodon

My latest blog is all about poetry...enjoy!

https://www.jacquigreaves-author.com/blog/a-month-of-poetry

#Poetry #Poem #PoetryMonth #WritingCraft #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #PoetsOfMastodon

My latest blog is all about poetry...enjoy!

https://www.jacquigreaves-author.com/blog/a-month-of-poetry

#Poetry #Poem #PoetryMonth #WritingCraft #WritingCommunity #ReadersOfMastodon #WritersOfMastodon #PoetsOfMastodon

How To Deliver Important Backstory With Setting

Ah, backstory. According to many, this is the BIG BAD WORD in fiction. How many times have you heard someone say, “Backstory is bad, strip it from the scene!” or, “Backstory slows the pace, bogs down the action, and will only bore the reader.” Well, if you hang out at the same online writerly spaces...
The post How To Deliver Important Backstory With Setting appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.
https://writershelpingwriters.net/2026/09/deliver-backstory-with-setting/

#Backstory #Setting #WritingCraft

✮ Razorblade Sundae ✮

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✮ Razorblade Sundae ✮

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New month...new blog. Am I more comfortable writing from the perspective of a billionaire or a fungus?
#WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon #WritingCraft #AuthorsOfMastodon #SpeculativeFiction #WritingPOV

https://www.jacquigreaves-author.com/blog/strange-points-of-view

How to Write Unique, Memorable Character Voices

Your character’s voice is the reader’s guide through your story. Readers hear your character in their head before they see them in their mind’s eye. A well-developed character voice stays with the reader long after they finish your book. When the voices aren’t unique, you’ll know… The Six Ingredients of Character Voice When character voices...
The post How to Write Unique, Memorable Character Voices appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.
https://writershelpingwriters.net/2026/07/write-memorable-character-voices/

#Backstory #Characters #GuestPost #Voice #WritingCraft

It's tools, not rules, baby. This class is about interrogating a cliche writing "rule" to understand it is simply one tool of many--and exploring how its opposite has many important uses.

Jun. 20, 2026, 10am-1pm Central, Loft Classroom, Minneapolis, MN

https://loft.org/classes/craft-fiction-tell-dont-show

#WritingConversations #WritingClass #WritingCraft #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #ShowDontTell #TellDontShow #LoftLiterary

8 Tips for Writing an Unreliable Narrator

We know that reader empathy is vital for maximizing their engagement and helping them identify with the protagonist, but what if that character turns out to be an unreliable narrator? These characters can be tricky because if you don’t set them up properly, they won’t be sympathetic. And their lives typically spiral into confusion and...
The post 8 Tips for Writing an Unreliable Narrator appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.
https://writershelpingwriters.net/2026/02/8-tips-for-writing-an-unreliable-narrator/

#CharacterTraits #Characters #Empathy #WritingCraft #WritingLessons

I'm doing a fiction sampler for the Loft on Sept. 4, 6-7pm North American Central time. This is a cheap, low-stakes writing class with some group close reading, some writing prompts, some community, some fun:

https://loft.org/classes/fall-fiction-sampler-allison-wyss-0

#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #WritingClass #WritingCraft #Fiction

10 weeks, Mondays, Sept. 8-Nov. 10, 12-2pm Central, $200

Each week we look at one or two pieces of published writing to study the craft of them & turn those tools into writing prompts. Then we share the results for light, inspirational feedback. Expect to write a lot and learn a lot.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeaSPHJDa9rMmgFl0ZvQyy1jOapNJ8hRsbing_DgDK5axvEPw/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=109553212956936077425

#WritingCommunity #WritingClass #WritingConversations #FlashFiction #WritingCraft

I wrote about Amanda Lee Koe's phenomenal SISTER SNAKE, (and couldn't stop myself from a light musing on fairy tales because you know me).

https://loft.org/writers-block-blog/sister-snake-amanda-lee-koe-and-time-magic

#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #SisterSnake #ReadingLikeAWriter #FairyTale #Folklore #FolkTale #TimeMagic #Anachronism #WritingCraft #Books

Write a 5-Star Book 2

When I set out to write Book 2 in my Fountain series, I made the common mistake of thinking it would be easier than the first one, which took me more than four years to write. After all, I’d already created the world and gotten to know my characters inside and out. I knew what […]…
https://writershelpingwriters.net/2025/05/write-a-5-star-book-2/

#Backstory #ResidentWritingCoach #Series #Worldbuilding #WritingCraft
@indieauthors

These gargoyles aren’t worried about explaining themselves to a human reader; they’re just trying to survive.

I wrote about Tara Campbell's fantastic CITY OF DANCING GARGOYLES and an opening that unsettles.

https://loft.org/writers-block-blog/city-dancing-gargoyles-and-decentering-humanity

#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #ReadingLikeAWriter #Beginnings #DystopianSciFi #Fiction #Bookstodon #WritingCraft

And here is the recording of the info session. It's long, but you'll be rewarded with a discount code and you can always speed up our voices (just remember it's not how I really talk).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GFT0Ksk95E

#WritingCommunity #Writing #AmWriting #WritingConversations #WritingWorkshop #WritingCraft #LitCommons

We're doing a free, live, online info session about Lit!Commons, this wondrous and exciting virtual writing community I'm part of. It's got asynchronous classes, live drop-in zoom sessions, and a space to get to know _each other_ to make lasting connections.

I can tell you more if you attend the free session June 11, 5-6 central.

(Or just ask me questions here!)

#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #WritingWorkshop #WritingCraft #LitCommons

https://loft.org/events/litcommons-info-session

This craft column is about Susie Yang's WHITE IVY and a whole lot of tools to make physical description alive and vibrant and even important to the story.

What are your favorite techniques for physical description of characters? And what makes you like a physical description when you read?

#WritingConversations #WritingCommunity #Bookstodon #PhysicalDescription #ReadingLikeAWriter #WhiteIvy #WritingCraft

https://bit.ly/WhIvyPhysDes

I wrote about a story from Farah Ali's The People Want to Live and the way a simple description can come to life through the layering of seeming contradiction.

#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Writing #WritingCraft #FarahAli #ThePeopleWantToLive #Description #Layering #Contradiction #Characterization #TheLoft

https://bit.ly/PeopleLiveAlive

I wrote about the opening chapter to Erika T. Wurth's WHITE HORSE and how it pulls together the mundane and the creepy to both situate & get the story moving--and also do weirder things like evoke the uncanny & make brain explosions.

#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #BookOpenings #FirstPages #WritingCraft #ErikaTWurth #WhiteHorse #Horror #GenerationalTrauma #Monsters #Ghosts

https://bit.ly/WhHSS

Here's something I wrote a while ago about about a really fascinating POV and THE INCENDIARIES by R.O. Kwon.

#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #POV #Perspective #WritingCraft #ROKwon #TheIncendiaries

http://bit.ly/2FGr4zW

This time I wrote about Paul Yoon's SNOW HUNTERS and how a passage that layers contradictory emotions can get us to _feel_ in an amazing way, creating an experience beyond what can be articulated.

https://bit.ly/3Y7WOnT

#WritingCommunity #ReadingLikeAWriter #TheLoft #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingCraft #SnowHunters #PaulYoon #LayeringEmotion #paradox #contradiction

Since we've all been talking about how to find and develop interesting characters, I feel like sharing an old craft post about a fun way to think about describing them.

It's about Silvia Moreno-Garcia's (amazing!) CERTAIN DARK THINGS and physical description that is really alive and thrilling.

#WritingCommunity #ReadingLikeAWriter #TheLoft #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingCraft #PhysicalDescription #Vampires #SilviaMorenoGarcia #CertainDarkThings

https://bit.ly/CertainDarkDescription

I wrote this a while back about MONGRELS (by Stephen Graham Jones) and the sense of wonder, which is something I'm absurdly fascinated by.

How do we create--and hold!--such a fleeting sensation? I love thinking about it.

And I'd love to learn your ideas about other ways to play with it.

https://bit.ly/MongWond

#WritingCommunity #ReadingLikeAWriter #TheLoft #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingCraft
#StephenGrahamJones #WereWolves #horror #wonder

Here's something I wrote about The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (which I loved). It's about a scene written out of order to create a sort of ghost of itself, but I also talk about scene building more generally--how it's usually done, the effect that has, and what can happen when you choose something different. (To be clear, I like all ways!)

https://bit.ly/GhostBrideOutOrder

#WritingCommunity #Writing #SceneBuilding #WritingCraft #ReadingLikeaWriter #GhostBride