Confused about how to find or create your voice as a writer? Practical techniques and exercises will help you discover and use the voices and styles within you.

Great stories have intriguing plots and intense conflict woven together in a way that keeps readers hooked. Does this mean guns, bomb, earthquakes, shipwrecks and homicidal ex-lovers? Not necessarily. Understand the differences between main and sub plots, as well as parallel, mirrors, alternate and braided. Learn what conflict really is, and how to make it riveting and original without blowing up cities and devastating planets in every chapter. Decide what will work best for the type of story you want to write.

Creating believable, interesting characters that come to life on the page is not an easy task. Learn a variety of techniques that will help you take your character from your story’s opening page to the final scene.

Discover what Point of View really is and how to select the best POV for your story. Learn how to establish and maintain a POV, how to use limited and multiple narrators, how to switch POV effectively, and more.

Scenes are the building blocks of a story. Learn the fundamentals of what makes a strong, effective, interesting scene, and how to create the various scene types of your novel or short story needs.

Want to write a novel but feel like Tinkerbell taking on Goliath? Relax, it's not so bad. This course is filled with practical advice, techniques and exercises that will have you developing ideas and writing in no time. Learn about plot, characters, structure, conflict, making time to write, overcoming writer's block and how to make it all the way to THE END.

Digital print technology has dramatically changed self-publishing with eBooks and POD, but also in the areas of marketing and promotion. This course will cut through the hype and misinformation providing you with the information you really need to know.

In this hands-on, project-based course discover how to create professional-looking covers for print and ebooks without expensive software. Learn about genre trends, sourcing images and fonts, branding a series or author name, how to determine spine size, and more.