In the Final Hours
I had written twenty, maybe thirty, pages of my first draft when I had the idea of setting the climax at a theme party. I thought it would be fun to put my characters into costumes and get them in…
Category: Writing Advice
Taking a Lesson from Moonlight
A few weeks ago, when I walked out of the theater after seeing Moonlight, I experienced a feeling akin to what I felt three days ago when I closed the cover of Zadie Smith’s Swing Time and sat back and…
Ambushed by Beauty
The members of my writing critique group comment on my manuscript. That’s what they’re there for: to offer suggestions, to help steer me in the right direction and to give me their gut reaction to my work. Most of the…
Writers’ Original Sin: Control
We all know that exhilarating feeling of banging out a first draft when the ideas are flowing, the characters are talking and pages are filling of our their own volition as we put our vision into words. There’s no better…
What are Your Intentions?
Just as the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, the path to my recycle bin is littered with fuzzy intentions. One of these scenarios tells a complete story. The other is just a pile of garbage.
YA Wednesday: YA Villains That Will Rock Your World, A Villain-Themed YA Anthology, 10 Ways To Create Dangerously Nuanced Antagonists, Which YA Book Villain Are You?
I recently saw the new Marvel movie, Dr. Strange. I enjoyed its dazzling dreamlike special effects but also found it helpful to me as writer. I’ve been struggling with how to make the villain in my novel into a fully…