DAN ALATORRE

You get a note from a critique partner or editor friend that says, “Cut this filter.” And you are like, Huh? What? What’s a filter? Filters are stuff you write that takes us out of the Main Character’s head for a nanosecond. Usually they aren’t needed. You don’t say to yourself, “I notice it’s raining.” […]

I’m interested in getting your thoughts about stuff I see and hear, quotes I read, stuff that passes as knowledge – and starting an authorey conversation. .  So finish it and publish it! 2018 is almost here! That thing ain’t gonna publish itself. What are YOUR thoughts on this idea?  

Each week we’re taking five, maybe ten, of YOUR writerly questions and setting about answering them for you.  Ask Dan ANYTHING Skill level doesn’t matter. Newbie writer, veteran writer, you have questions. I’ll opine; maybe some others will chime in with their thoughts, and hopefully YOU will get several good solutions to choose from. Or […]

The winners of July’s Word Weaver Writing Contest share their thoughts on the contest, writing in general, and other stuff. Our2nd place winner in the July contest, Ann Marie Hilse, wrote a really interesting piece that locked readers right in. I liked the style and the flow, but also the eerie undertone of why are you doing this versus what’s gonna […]

and what should the “theme” be if we did?   The last two contest themes were family and travel. Loosely. I’m not real strict on that.   And we DID kinda create an anthology that we’re getting ready to publish, which includes quite a few winners from the contests… We did the prior contests in April […]

  The winners of July’s Word Weaver Writing Contestshare their thoughts on the contest, writing in general, and other stuff.  Today our honorable mention winner, Carrie Ann Alexis, was also a winner in our April contest. Carrie Ann answers a few questions about our contest and other writerly things. (Click HERE to read her contest entry) DAN: Welcome […]

The winners of July’s Word Weaver Writing Contest share their thoughts on the contest, writing in general, and other stuff. Our fifth place winner in the contest, Juliet Nubel, wrote a very touching piece for our contest, and explains about that and other stuff in this little Q&A. She is the author of the blog https://omgimfifty.com/ which she describes […]

Wanna feel good? Wanna make others feel good? I have just the thing.   You writer types have NO IDEA how cool you are. Yep. I said it.   Cool. See, once a year or so I go to my daughter’s school and give a chat about being an author. I ask the teachers if […]

On several occasions I’ve mentioned good stuff Lucy Brazier does in her PorterGirl books. Subplots. Settings and descriptions. Character development (or was it being a character?). Writerly things like that. Another great tactic I see Lucy employee occasionally is interruption. Why is that important? Glad you asked. I mean, if it was obvious, I wouldn’t have […]