Blog | Quill Shift LLC

Teenage Romance – Use with Caution

by Ayanna | May 26, 2015 | Blog, Writing Advice

Side Effects May Include: Unrealistic Expectations, Chronic Dissatisfaction, Stagnant Plots and Nausea By Emily Kramer I like reading young adult (YA) fiction. I enjoy reading coming-of-age stories, rooting for the underdog and finding out just how the good guys...

What’s In A Name?

by Ayanna | May 12, 2015 | Blog, Writing Advice

Using Unconscious Bias In Writing by Aimee Lucido We’ve all heard about unconscious bias. We know about the study where if you feed identical resumes to a hiring panel, Harold will get the job more often than Heidi, Joe more than Jose, Shawn more than Lashawna....

Write What You See – Stories in Color

by Ayanna | Apr 28, 2015 | Blog, Writing Advice

by Emily Kramer I love the simplicity of old photographs – the polished black-and-white pictures of my grandparent’s wedding day occupy prime real estate on my wall. They both seem rather debonair and impossible young and polished – it’s simple and rather...

Too Many Pesky, Overdone, Redundant, Wordy Modifiers

by Ayanna | Apr 14, 2015 | Blog, Writing Advice

By Aimee Lucido In the immortal words of Mark Twain, “If you catch an adjective, kill it.” Maybe that’s an overstatement, but the abundance of modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) is a red flag of amateur writing. There are all sorts of ways to misuse...

Twitter and the Hashtags that Matter for Writers

by Ayanna | Mar 30, 2015 | Blog, Marketing Advice

Social Media. It seems that everywhere you turn as a writer you’re getting the advice to jump in, build your following and, through that, viola (!), you have an enviable platform created in no time. Obviously it’s not that easy. There are numerous articles out...

Write Female Characters, Not Sexy Cutouts

by Ayanna | Mar 17, 2015 | Blog, Writing Advice

by Emily Kramer Actually, that should be expanded to include all characters in literature. But as the “cutout” syndrome does afflict female characters with depressing frequency, I’ll keep it focused for now. What is the “cutout” syndrome? They are...