Character profiles are great for first drafts. I fill out a ton of those for each character. I cast my characters with favorite TV and movie stars. I create playlists for each character. These profiles create character shells, but rarely…
E-books are coming. You’ve heard about it at every writing conference from frightened people. They are pouring out of the Matrix, and they are shooting their internet lightning from the Cloud to destroy paper books, burning them away with video…
“What’s at stake here?” Sooner or later every fiction writer fields this question. Often the challenge appears as a single word – STAKES? – scrawled on a novel chapter or short story draft, plus or minus a coffee cup ring,…
Like a lot of writers, I have a little notebook where I jot down stuff that pops into my head. Sometimes it’s an idea or phrase. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a single word. For instance, the last note I…
“Show, don’t tell.” It’s likely the most common writing advice out there and with good reason. Readers want to experience the world of your story, not have it dictated to them. But it’s worth pushing this advice a little further,…
“For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.” Eudora Welty, On Writing I just did something I haven’t done in years. I read two novels in the span of two weeks. Joy! I fussed and…