Columbia Writers' Workshop II

By Fred Fields Since his death in 2001, 23 new novels have been published in Robert Ludlum's name. Tom Clancy and James Patterson r...

By Fred Fields I used to be a public speaker. The first thing one must learn when speaking to a group, is "Don't put your...

By Bonnie Stanard Writers are artists. Even in a league that includes musicians, painters, dancers, actors, and sculptors, we’re near ...

By Kimberly Johnson Full disclosure--Maggie Smith’s acting is the reason why I watched Downton Abbey . The acclaimed actress plays Vio...

By Laura P. Valtorta All of us who attend South Carolina Writers’ Workshop, Columbia II, have thought now and again that Bonnie would ...

By Len Lawson Writing is hard. You first have to find time to write in your busy schedule, and when you do have time, you have to be i...

Structure in Storytelling By Chris Mathews For some of us, writing good sentences is not a challenge. We can do that. We write wit...

  By Ginny Padgett For those of you who are unfamiliar with our workshop’s origin, we are a chapter of South Carolina Writers’ Wor...

These are answers from members of our workshop to the question, “Why do you write?”   Writing began as a way t o defuse overpowering e...

By Kimberly Johnson Often glib and sometimes risqué, but she made a good point. That’s how I define Dear Abby ’s advice style. Str...

By Len Lawson     It is a crucial benefit for writers to discover the authors who have had the most significant influence on their work....

By Bonnie Stanard Anachronisms are the bane of serious historical fiction writers. If we rack up too many, our validity as researchers ...

At a recent workshop, our members were asked what would be their best advice to a new writer. Here are three selections. You can’t wai...

By Mike Long Until recently I’ve steadfastly resisted giving any of my books away.   Sure, I sent copies to folks for reviews (with m...

By Fred Fields "If you want to sell books and make money, 'how to' sells better than fiction, at least until you're f...

By Michelle Gwynn Jones When it comes to character development, I have no problem coming up with the main character and the secon...

By Laura P. Valtorta Art begets art. Painting has intercourse with music and produces poetry. Playwriting marries the Philharmonic and t...

By Alex Raley Often people, even in our writer’s group, say they don’t understand poetry, or they know nothing about poetry. How can t...

By Chris Mathews Conflict is the ticking time bomb in riveting writing.  We may not all be writers, but we are all amateur psychologis...