genre

If you love reading, watching and/or writing murder mysteries, you’ve probably heard the term “Murder Book” somewhere along the way. It’s an American term for what equates to a single case file that has many different elements in play. Considering the police solve crimes by using a Murder Book...

Second chance romance is a popular trope that covers a lot of situations. A chance to make up after a split. A second chance at love for "older" heroines. Another chance for love after heartbreak or trauma. Second chances come in many forms and readers love to experience them. Learn how to build...

Do you have to know the solution to the mystery before you start writing your amazing new murder mystery? The ‘who’ in whodunit? The how? The why? Not necessarily! In this course, we will explore how to craft a compelling, taut mystery from start to finish that will keep readers guessing without...

What makes YA paranormal different than adult paranormal? What makes YA different than other fiction? What do YA readers expect from your story? We’ll explore the differences from your story idea, story opening, middle, and end. In this workshop, we’ll discover how character, plots, and setting...

Love cozy mysteries and dying to write your own, but don’t know where to start? In this eight-week course, Lori Devoti (aka Rae Davies) USA Today Bestselling author of the Dusty Deals Mystery Series, will walk you through everything you need to know to plan and write and a successful cozy...

Romance book sales exceed $1 billion dollars per year, and a third of all mass market books sold are Romances, which makes it a very attractive genre for writers. But there's a whole lot more to writing Romance than throwing in some purple prose and slapping a half-naked man on the cover. If you...

Whether you’re writing a cozy or a psychological thriller, worldbuilding is essential. After all, if your audience can’t visualize your protagonist’s plight, they’ll lose sight of your plot. Unfortunately, many writers consider clever settings the sole province of fantasy authors—and while it is...

Learn how to create a fictional case that readers won't be able to solve! Lesson One: Ineffective ways to create mystery - Learn commonly used methods that help prevent readers from solving a case - Understand why many readers dislike these methods - Learn how to catch them in...

Have you ever watched a movie and rooted for the villain? Do you read books where you cringe and are yet delighted by the awfulness of the bad guy? Have you ever seen a villain transform before your eyes as you realize their motives are not that far gone from what you yourself believe? These are...

Do the names Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Ben Aaronovitch, Lisa Shearin, Mike Carey, Karen Marie Moning, Jonathan Howard, Kate Griffin, Kevin Hearne, Daryinda Jones, or Benedict Jacka ring a bell with you? They are merely some of the many writers who mix magic, paranormal, supernatural, and...

Great stories have great structure. It’s vital for writers to deliver all the right hits, in all the right places, if they want to get on readers’ auto-buy lists. But most plotting methods aren’t specific for the romance genre.. Trying to adapt a single-protagonist, plot-centric structure will...

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to construct a thriller from beginning to end. Some of the topics covered are: What is a thriller and why are they so popular? The many different categories of thrillers Secrets of creating commercial story ideas Developing a ‘hot’ plot How to start your story...

Did you know that fifty percent of all books bought every year are in the Romance Genre? There’s a reason Romance is so popular not just with women but with men as well. Have you ever wanted to write a romance? Or maybe you just want to add a love interest to the book you’ve already got going...

Without conflict there is no story. Your characters have to grow and they have to be challenged. They fall in love, break up and make up until the HEA or HFN. How do you keep the tension and conflict as they go through their story arc? What keeps them going and what conflicts do they have to...

In this class, a New York Times bestselling author of erotic romance explores how to write romance hot enough to burn the pixels off the screen. She discusses the creation of characters with the kind of intense sensuality needed in erotic romance; building a believable erotic attraction that...

Learn the three parts of a mystery and where to include what and when. Steve will show you how to outline and use free writing techniques to craft a winning mystery short. What makes a good mystery, and how to be an idea machine. How to craft openings that hook your reader, and twist endings...

Love is Universal - Even for Monsters! Have you ever wanted to write in the Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Horror genre but you just aren’t sure how to meld romance and the other elements necessary to satisfy the readers of those speculative genres? Have you ever wanted to know what is hot...

So I’ve started writing short stories, and the thing abt short stories is they can be very obvious genres, but when we write about the nitty gritty, the dark sides of life genre becomes more difficult to define. I have been defining mine as “political/domestic horror” because they are bizarre...

Don’t have time to write a novel? Well, fewer people have time to read one. That’s why flash fiction is hot, with over 300 paying markets looking for well-formed stories of 1000 words or less. Learn how to write, market and sell these tiny tales.

When you cruise the shelves at the bookstore, or the online listings, it’s easy to find stories of daring-do and hot clinches set in the Scottish Highlands, Regency or Victorian London or a country house within these periods, and occasionally take a trip back to the Medieval or Age of the...