As an out writer in a large writing community, I sometimes get questions from fellow writers about writing gay characters. Typically, there’s some low-level anxiety about “getting it right.” I love these questions. It means that the writer has or is…
This post first appeared four years ago, when the Novel Incubator was only a toddler. Now, with Class 7 more than halfway through their year, we decided once again to take a break from our typical posts to give you…
Stephanie Gayle is the author of the Thomas Lynch mystery series, which includes Idyll Threats and Idyll Fears, out today. Her first novel, My Summer of Southern Discomfort, was one of Redbook magazine’s Top Ten Summer Reads, and her short fiction…
My Novel Incubator instructors loved to tell us to kill our characters. Most of us came into class with drafts bloated with characters who served no purpose, so it was sound advice. During revision, I created a giant diagram of all…
I’m about a month out from the publication of my debut novel, Cottonmouths, and let me tell you, it’s been a whirlwind. But my whirlwind is definitely different from other authors’ whirlwinds because as I’ve mentioned before, we’re all special…
Last Thursday, I had a total breakdown in the Harvard Square post office. I was in the process of writing a message to my dad in my debut novel, Cottonmouths, which I was about to mail to him. This isn’t out…