MANUSCRIPT  MENTORING

Do publishers accept AI-assisted books? In 2026 the question stopped being theoretical: a major publisher cancelled a novel over suspected AI use, and a number of literary agencies amended their submission guidelines. In this article, we take a look at where publishers and agents draw the line, what your contract asks you to promise, and when the writer should disclose AI use. There's nothing new about writers using tools. Spellcheckers, grammar checkers, and word processors

Age is no barrier when it comes to pursuing your passion for writing. If you’re an older individual dreaming of starting a writing career, this guide will show you how to turn your life experiences into compelling stories.

Do you foreshadow important events in your stories? In this blog post, we look at foreshadowing techniques that make even the most outlandish plot twists believable.

Find the right literary agent for your science fiction novel with our comprehensive list of 100 top-rated agents actively seeking sci-fi submissions.

How do writers become published authors? In this article, we take a look at the inner workings of traditional book publishing.

In this blog post, we take a look at some common creative writing mistakes.

Is your story world reactive? How about your characters? In fiction, reader engagement depends heavily on the interplay between motive and world.

There are few punctuation mistakes as prevalent as those involving dashes and hyphens. But how exactly do hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes differ? In this article, we find out.

Writers should be cognizant of their story’s structure during the writing and editing stages of a work. But what are the main elements of plot? More importantly, how is structure balanced with originality?

Point of view is a crucial element of any work of fiction. It determines the narrator’s intimacy with the reader, and affects plot and world presentation. In this article, we take a closer look at the differences between third person omniscient, limited, and objective.

Short stories should have compelling characters and clear conflict. But how do you write a cohesive work of fiction in just a few thousand words? In this article, we take a closer look at short story writing.

Writers are often told to stick to the active voice. But how do active and passive constructions differ? In this article, we look at the impact of grammatical voice on sentence length, clarity, and tension.

It can be tricky to write the first chapter of a novel. Where should you start? How important is backstory? In this article, we look at some of the factors that impact the quality of a first chapter.

Books that prioritize information are beholden to many of the same rules that inform creative writing. In this blog post, we look at the most common pitfalls of writing about real-world events and experiences.

It can be tricky to write a novel that contains a nested story. It has to be structurally sound, of course—but the motives of the storyteller add an additional layer of complexity to the prose.

Writers often labor away to get a description exactly as they want it—only to have it returned with, “Don’t tell me, show me,” scrawled in the margin by an editor or writing mentor. In this article, we take a closer look at showing and telling.

Literary students are lectured to ad infinitum on the strengths of active verbs. Yet what makes an active verb not just okay, but great? In this article, we analyze the impact of verb choice on scene construction and characterization.

What gives a character authenticity? Elaborate backstory and emotion are not enough; instead, the writer needs to dig deeper.

Although crucial to any story, excessive expository writing can severely hamper reader enjoyment. In this article, we define exposition and look at its common pitfalls.

In this article, we define and look at examples of personification. Most importantly, we determine how the writer can use this literary device to enhance the mood of a story.