Stephanie Leary

Writer and WordPress consultant

  • Books
    • Content Strategy for WordPress (2015)
    • WordPress for Web Developers (2013)
    • Beginning WordPress 3 (2010)
  • Blog
    • Fascism Watch (2016-17)
    • Content Modeling for WordPress series
    • WordPress Hidden Gems series
  • Work
    • Portfolio
    • Services
    • WordPress Plugins
    • WordPress Themes
    • Presentations and Interviews
    • on GitHub →
  • About
    • Press Kit
  • Contact
    • Mailing List

Critiquing: Make it Work

December 1, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

We're done! Or almost done, as the case may be. For many of us, after revisions, there will be workshops and group critiques. Tim Gunn's design critiques are a great model for all sorts of criticism. … [Read more...]

Writing

The thud is our reward

November 30, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

Last day! We're done! And when we're done, it's thud time. Now, I’m in the final throes of that process. I’m revising. I’m reworking. I’m trudging once again through every page, every word, and someday soon, I will be, finally, done with it. And then? I’m going to kill it. I’m … [Read more...]

Writing

Letter to a young writer on surviving the first draft

November 29, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

Delia Sherman has some lovely (and very timely) advice to a young relative on surviving the first draft. Whatever you do (and I'm sure there are other things I've never tried or thought of), get that shitty first draft done. You can't fix something that doesn't exist. You … [Read more...]

Writing

The Nine Circles of Writing Hell

November 28, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

It's the last week. By now, we're all in one of the Nine Circles of Writing Hell. Third Circle - Gluttony No time to eat. No time to work. No time for breaks. No time to attend to essential hygiene. Twenty-six-hours straight. MUST. WRITE. NOVEL. I. WILL. NOT. BURN. OUT. Okay, … [Read more...]

Writing

Jenny Crusie’s basics of fiction

November 27, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

Here's a link to save for December, when you'd rather watch It's a Wonderful Life a thousand times than revise your book. Jenny Crusie's Basics of Fiction class handout is a neat little primer on structuring and revising a story. It's all here: goal/motivation/conflict, character … [Read more...]

Writing

50K!

November 26, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

That feels good! And now I'm going to go fall over. … [Read more...]

Writing

Revising scenes with Jenny Crusie

November 26, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

By now you probably have a lot of awful, no-good, terrible scenes that you've kept because throwing them out would ruin your word count. Here's how to revise them. And, bonus, there are questions at the end you can use to critique your friends' manuscripts. But not today! Do … [Read more...]

Writing

Gratitude

November 25, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

One of my LiveJournal friends, Hannah, does a wonderful, irregular series of posts on gratitude. I love these posts for their randomness and poetry. (Although it occurs to me that I haven't said so lately. Hey, Hannah: I love this series!) Today would be a good day to have … [Read more...]

Writing

Creating tension, heightening stakes

November 24, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

I like this article from Writer's Digest on creating tension and heightening stakes because it includes a section on dialogue, whereas most other articles on the topic focus on plot alone. … [Read more...]

Writing

FIGHT!

November 23, 2010 Stephanie Leary Leave a Comment

I know at least one of my writing buddies is struggling with fight scenes, so here's an article from Janice Hardy on making action scenes work. … [Read more...]

Writing

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Fascism Watch

The Fascism Watch is a daily(ish) news roundup. View all the previous Fascism Watch posts »

Latest WordPress Book

Content Strategy for WordPress

A short book for content strategists and managers on implementing a complete content strategy in WordPress: evaluation, analysis, content modeling, editing and workflows, and long-term planning and maintenance.

Read the sample chapter

Kindle Nook iBooks Kobo Smashwords

WordPress for Web Developers

WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

This is the second, much-revised and updated edition of Beginning WordPress 3, with a more accurate title. Everything’s been updated for WordPress 3.6.

WordPress for Web Developers is out now. See what's inside...

The best WordPress features you’ve never noticed

  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Screen Options
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Bulk Edit
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Private Status
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Dashboard Feed Readers
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Options.php

Content Modeling for WordPress series

  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 1: analyze content
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 2: functional and organizational requirements
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 3: a sample content model

This is an excerpt from Content Strategy for WordPress.My latest books are Content Strategy for WordPress (2015) and WordPress for Web Developers (2013). Sign up to be notified when I have a new book for you.

Copyright © 2021 Stephanie Leary