Polished communication skills are key to a freelancer's success. Here are some tips for establishing a good rapport with your long-distance counterparts.

On her path to publication, the writer learned never to underestimate her ability to write something that others might want to read.

Even when a project stalls, you can learn how to become a stronger writer.

To improve your concentration, word choice and sense of voice, try turning the clock way back—to the dipping pen.

Stranded in the U.S. during the Bosnian conflict, Aleksandar Hemon has managed to dazzle critics with his unique sensibilities and inventiveness.

Tap into readers' fears with five techniques for an emotionally rich story.

They're a basic way to overcome fear, and to develop and organize your ideas.

A writing teacher and novelist shows you how to avoid the most common errors, which range from problems with backstory and narration to weaknesses in plotting and characterization.

A resourceful writer offers seven strategies for making these publications pay off.

Here are 11 tips that can help freelancers strengthen their writing and research skills.

You begin by developing the writer's sense of alertness to potential stories, says this veteran magazine columnist.

The label is sometimes applied to Gary Smith, and nonfiction writers can extract some valuable lessons from his work.

A former sci-fi/fantasy editor at Penguin and Random House describes the common writing and marketing errors that speculative-fiction authors make.

A novelist known for his "mind-bending" originality takes aim at the most common of all literary aphorisms.

In five simple steps, you can quickly determine whether or not a lead is worth pursuing.

These assignments look like feature articles but promote a publication's advertisers.

This month's spotlight is on the somewhat whimsical literary journal The Cincinnati Review, describing its tone, contributors and editorial preferences.

How to get involved in the writing community, an organization founded to promote the art and craft of biography, plus other literary notes, Stephanie Dickison's regular bimonthly column about freelancing, an excerpt from a new writing book, and more.

Reviews of Tales From the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters  Share Their Stories, edited by Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman; Illuminating Fiction: Today's Best Writers of Fiction, edited by Sherry Ellis; and Writers and Their Notebooks, edited by Diana M. Raab.

Compiled by Martha Lundin

For Elizabeth Flock, author of Me & Emma and other novels, writing "goes to the core of who you are."