The Importance of Genre
One of those writing clichés tells aspiring authors to “write the book you want to read.” That may be true, but make sure your book fits into an accepted genre or no one else will read it. As I was…
Category: The Writing Life
Review: Understanding Show, Don’t Tell
As often as Show, Don’t Tell is drummed into us, it’s not always clear how to do it. Telling is sometimes necessary, even desirable in a sprawling novel, and the impulse to perform corrective showing can lead to page-count creep…
Into, Well…the Abyss
Into the Valley, by Ruth Galm, a 272 page novel, might be of interest to aspiring novelists for two reasons; one, it’s a terrific novel. And two, Ms. Galm’s manuscript was rejected over sixty times before she finally got it…
What to Write in Troubled Times? Whatever You Want.
For the past two years, I’ve been steadily working on a middle grade novel about a lonely 12-year-old girl in small-town Wisconsin who meets four siblings with a dangerous fantasy world. While I was under no illusions that I was…
Reading whilst writing
All writers should read. We all read what we want, what we love, and most writers I know read their friends’ books, but are you reading your genre? Reading other books in your genre lets you know what current writing…
Who Cares?
Who cares? I ask myself this question a lot these days in the wake of an election, a year, that left me, and so many others, feeling lopsided. For years, I’ve used writing and reading as a way to cope….