More people than I can count have told me that Chip Cheek is an amazing–legendary–Grub Street instructor and even better writer, and now that I’ve read his debut novel, Cape May (Celadon, 2019) I get it. Set in 1957, newlyweds…
This past week I’ve heard from a lot of writer friends who are having a tough time, mostly with their writing. As one friend put it, “hard to write with all this treason.” It got me to imagining a 911-type…
Sometimes when I’m working through a revision, I realize I haven’t given an event or a character proper consideration. The book suffers because I’ve buried in ‘telling’ certain events and characters who should have been ‘shown’ in scene. These are…
A few months ago, I attended a one-day seminar on revision. The lecturer started off by asking the audience to describe “revision” in one word. Everyone laughed when somebody said, “Hell.” Except me. I know not everyone out there shares…
Whenever the topic of rewriting comes up, it seems to always be met with a communal groan and mumblings of, “Oh, god.” You know the feeling I’m talking about. You just finished a draft of your novel. You’ve spent months…
Writers are alarmingly susceptible to certain overlooked and under-reported maladies. But early detection is key, and as a fellow author concerned about the well-being of his community, I implore you to take two minutes out of your day to review…