Author: Laura Resnick

You Got Your Rights Back: Now What?

March 20, 2024
Laura Resnick
Business

In the early days of my publishing career, I worked as an editor for a publisher based in Ireland. While it started as primarily a digital-first romance house, it quickly grew into a multi-genre powerhouse. During that time, two of my titles were accepted by the publisher. The first was a little military thriller called Stray Ally, a story about a not-so-great guy who meets a dog in the wilderness after being targeted for an unknown reason and saves the dog’s life. As often happens with man’s...

branding, business, career, Discovery, indie, sales, self-publishing

The Scar’s the Thing: Tropes in Advanced Craft

March 20, 2024
Laura Resnick
Craft

Tropes, characters, and story What do you think of when you hear the word trope? Do you think of a story building block? Or an overused concept? These days, we hear about tropes often, but the meaning is less specific. Some writers love them, while others loathe them. One constant is that tropes are a storytelling staple stemming from fairy and folk tales. Tropes are valuable storytelling building blocks because the audiences immediately understand them. Think of tropes such as loner, unrequited...

characterization, craft, Writing

Libraries Under Fire: Lessons From the Front Lines of Book Bans

September 5, 2023
Laura Resnick
Journal

In 2002, I was a second-year English teacher in a struggling northern Ohio town. Poverty was rampant, and investment in education was inconsistent. That year, 15 percent of my students were parents; of the 88 counties in Ohio, our county had the highest teen pregnancy rate. My job? To get seniors to read and write at a level that would boost job opportunities—and occasionally, college acceptance. That year, our English department adopted several titles, including Mark Mathabane’s apartheid memoir...

banning, bans, book bans, books, libraries, reading

Red Herrings & Plot Details: How to Keep Track of Them & Not Leave Them Hanging

July 20, 2023
Laura Resnick
Craft

In fiction, the term “red herring” is a technique designed to distract the reader by introducing misleading information. It’s a false clue, meant to deceive, before the truth is revealed. Take a look at your latest story. Have all your plot twists been resolved? Do you have any red herring plot threads that you overlooked? There’s nothing more frustrating than finishing your book, tweaking every subplot, only to have your readers ask about a plot thread you’d forgotten about. Oops! How can you...

craft, editor advice, genre, organization, self-editing, Tools, tutorials, Writing

Understanding and Fighting Back Against Harassment

July 8, 2023
Laura Resnick
Journal

In 2013, a big-name editor at a major sf/f publishing house lost his job after multiple reported incidents of sexual harassment. Among the reports and stories shared around this time was an author who reported that after she signed with this publisher, other writers had quietly warned her about this editor. She’d signed with them in 2002. In other words, this editor’s harassment wasn’t a one-time thing. It wasn’t an isolated incident. It was an ongoing problem for more than a decade. Unfortunately,...

DEI, gaslighting, harrassment, Publishing

Using Names to Develop Characters

June 20, 2023
Laura Resnick
Craft

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet.” —Juliet The naming of our characters runs the gamut. Our characters are “ours” and character names provide opportunities for authors to expand the emotion, impact, and resonance of their stories. Or as Elizabeth Ann West, author of 25 books and a digital publishing professional for over a decade said, “A name is a shorthand code readers have to talk about the character. That code is a big factor determining...