By Jen Sinclair

Back in the days of dial-up Internet, and long before the rise of social media, there was blogging. For writers especially, blogging gave us an outlet, an opportunity to sharpen our skills, to tell stories, and to hone our voices. We wrote about whatever meant something to us. And we blogged to connect with readers and each other long before the world became overconnected.

Though many of us have abandoned blogging in favor of social media, the practice still has value. It’s with this in mind that WFWA is launching Write Away, a blog that takes you behind the screens, laptops, tablets, and pages of the amazing community of WFWA members. We’re hoping to become a reliable source of insight for every step of the writing and publishing journey, from the perspective of those going through it in real time.

Whether you’re a WFWA member or a hopeful writer scrolling through, all are welcome to subscribe and follow. We want nothing more than to provide the kind of support that helps fill your creative tank so that you, too, can Write Away.

Nancy Johnson
Originally Published in WriteOn! Summer 2025 Issue

Your book won’t sell itself no matter how good it is. We spend years writing and rewriting, agonizing over character development, plot, and just the right turn of phrase. Eventually, we publish and then what? Sit back and wait for the world to anoint our book baby as The Great American Novel?

Sorry, that’s not happening.

It’s been about two months since my second novel, People of Means, hit shelves, and I’ve been crisscrossing the country on a book tour. Still, there are plenty of folks who have no idea this book exists. I keep asking myself what more I can do to promote the book. I’m lining up events throughout the year because I’m taking the long view, recognizing that there’s nothing but upside in introducing my novel to as many new readers as I can.

Barbara Claypole White
Originally published in WriteOn! Winter 2015 Issue

I'm thinking about bad writing days, because after a string of them, I’ve rewritten the lyrics to Queen’s “We are the Champions.” As I type this, I can hear Freddie Mercury singing, “Bad writing days? I've had a few ... ”

A bad BCW writing day can be anything from total lack of inspiration to sinking in endless sentences devoid of meaning or voice. I'm fanatical about voice, so that last one is a killer. And yes, I have an ongoing problem with plot. But whether it’s one bad day or (starts counting and runs out of fingers) many, the trick is to keep going, to let more writing be the cure.

Some of you know that I love to quote Sir Winston Churchill. It’s not just because I'm English; it’s because I write about courageous struggles with mental illness, and Sir Winston, bless him, battled his ‘black dog,’ dyslexia, and a speech impediment to beat the Nazis and win the Nobel Prize in Literature. What a guy. When he said, “If you're going through hell, keep going,” he was talking from experience.

by Sheila Athens
Originally published in WriteOn! Fall 2020

While the editors of WriteOn! asked me to write about endings, I must start at the beginning. These two parts of story are inextricably linked together.

First, though, let’s get some basics out of the way. A good opening to a novel contains a promise to the reader. It tells her that the book will be funny or spooky or romantic or quirky or whatever. The ending, therefore, should be the fulfillment of that promise. “[Expectations] will differ depending on the genre,” wrote author and bookstagrammer Bradeigh Godfrey recently. “For romance, there has to be an HEA (Happy Ever After) or a happy for now. For mystery, the crime needs to be solved.” Even in books where an HEA isn’t an expectation of the genre, readers usually like a happy, hopeful ending. They want to feel better about the world once they’ve invested the time to read the book.

In many well-loved novels, the seeds of the ending are sown into the first page or even the first paragraph of the book. Even if the reader doesn’t specifically remember how the book started, a good ending will give her a sense that the story has come full circle, that the journey which started the book has reached a satisfying ending. When I finish reading a novel, I almost always turn immediately back to the first page to see how the ending ties in with the beginning.