I’m a sub-par writer. Always have been. And I’m totally cool with saying that because, well, for one thing it’s true. But I’ve also learned that it’s not how well you write that makes you a good writer. It’s how…
I’m struggling with my novel in progress. The plot has literally become a shapeshifter, morphing from one genre to another on a daily basis. I just realized my antagonist and protagonist are named Ryan and Brian and half the other…
Most of us writers spend way too much time doing this writing thing. Crafting a story. Developing characters. Stressing about arcs and structure. Every once in awhile, like in the shower, more fanciful thoughts will strike me. And lots of…
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…
We are in tumultuous times and it is easy to dismiss art, music, writing, maybe particularly writing fiction, as a luxury. I think it is anything but.
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…