The Importance of Alt Text

Hi, SEers. Welcome to the first Mae Day of April. Thanks for visiting with me today. Let’s chat alt text. I’ve blogged about this on Story Empire in the past, but I think it bears repeating. Several times, vision-impaired visitors to my personal blog have thanked me for using descriptive text in conjunction with my …

Useful Writing Tools

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you today. You’ve probably heard the terms planner, plotter, and panster. Some writers must have a detailed outline before writing the first word of a novel. Others write by the seat of their pants and let the story (or characters) determine what happens. I’m somewhere between. When I begin a …

What to Do With Books That Are Insensitive to Social Norms

  Hi SEers, John here with you today. The last time we were together, I talked about sensibilities in writing. I made the point that authors should be careful when writing characters of a specific race, gender, age, nationality, and sexual orientation because of changing social norms. I also stated that I didn't believe writers …

Words of Wisdom

Ciao, amici! This will not be my usual post. I find myself being very introspective these days. Over the years, there are certain dates that take on different meanings to us. Days that used to mean nothing suddenly mark a happy occasion, like a baptism or anniversary. And days that used to mean something special …

A trick that works

Hi gang, Craig with you again. I’ve been toying with something I think you’ll be interested in. First you get some background. When I started writing I used to play classical music in the background. I can’t handle anything with vocals or I won’t focus on the task at hand. This worked well for about …