Creative Writing in 5 Simple Steps

A horror story succeeds if it strikes terror in the reader. A good horror story is like a good ride at an amusement park. Feeling scared without having to face real danger is exhilarating. The story builds with tantalizing ideas. The reader inches out on the coaster track, knowing the precarious drop is seconds away. Author Laura Baskes Litwin shows aspiring writers how to write a terrifying tale of horror.

Fantasy is a fun genre to read and write because you can create new worlds, people who have magical powers, and animals with remarkable qualities. If you enjoy stories about wizards and witches, traveling through time, talking animals, fairies, and trolls, then fantasy is the perfect way to express yourself. Author Laura Lee McKay shows aspiring writers how to craft an exciting fantasy.

Comic books, also called "sequential art" or "graphic storytelling," are currently a billion-dollar industry. Books of sequential art, popularly known as graphic novels, fill bookstores and libraries all over the world. Author Jeffrey Edward Peters shows young, aspiring writers how to create new universes of their own through the unique combination of words and pictures that make a graphic novel.

Science-fiction stories are among the most popular works of fiction today. Sci-fi can be about robots, clones, computer technology, cyborgs, life under the ocean or on other worlds, or even an alternative version of our Earth. Author Michael A. Schuman shows aspiring writers how to write a gripping tale of science fiction.

Romance writing is a billion-dollar-a-year industry. Authors are busy creating new titles every single day because hungry readers have been known to gobble up as many as forty new romance novels every month. Author Suzanne Lieurance shows aspiring writers how to write a sweeping tale of epic romance.

Books, movies, T.V. shows, video games, mysteries can be found everywhere, for every type of audience. Part story, part puzzle, mysteries are naturally fun and exciting, both to read and to write, but how do you begin to write a mystery story? Author Amy Dunkleberger shows aspiring writers how to invent a believable mystery.