Deborah Owen

Short story structure demands that you abandon all ideas of forming your own brand of storytelling. The rules are very simple: comply to the form that sells, or you don't sell. Short story structure has been around since the beginning of time. You can read short stories in the Bible and...

Transition sentences are a little tricky to master, but once you learn the "trick", your problems will be over. Transition sentences are the bridge that connects one paragraph to another in a smooth and orderly fashion so that your reader won't feel jolted as they climb the stairs of the...

Dialogue tags are the short insertions that identify the speakers in a written conversation. Without them, the reader would be lost. Dialogue tags are quick signposts that keep the reader on the right path. When you change paths to another speaker, it is not always necessary to place a tag. Sometimes...

Learn the DeBowen short story system, the newest writing rage. Every story has one climactic conflict, and this is where you are going to start your story. You might be saying, huh? What about the setting and theme? What about the plot and resolution? All in due time. Think of action scenes....

Creative writers rarely study punctuation, but every sentence they write depends on it. Learn it well. An imperative sentence is a command or request. Give me a hug. A declarative sentence states a fact. She gave him a hug. Some declarative sentences contain a question. If the sentence as a whole states the question as...

Creative writing is so much more than stringing your words together in the proper order. It is the wondrous transport by which you place your own thoughts and fears into the hearts and minds of others. How much do you know about writing? Test your knowledge, and check your answers...

Creative writers - don't wait to edit your work until you know every word by heart - learn to edit the easy way. Do you know what to look for in editing? Have you wondered what should stay and what should go? By the time you read this article, you...

According to the dictionary, a writer is one who writes. Yet most writers don't consider themselves "real" writers unless they have been published. Is it because the literary world is responsible for dubbing a person a "writer"? Or is it because writers lay that definition on themselves? I think it...