Under Pressure
People used to ask, “When is your next book due?” and I would laugh, self-consciously, because I didn’t have deadlines. I wasn’t a writer who had contracts or editors waiting for me to produce anything. In those bygone days, I…
Tag: Writing Advice
How to Read Your Work Aloud in Public
I know many, many writers who get terrified by the idea of reading aloud to an audience. But readings are part of the business of post-published writing, especially in the world of novels. Readings give you an opportunity to sell…
Writing the Murky Middle: How Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat Can Help
I was floundering in the Murky Middle of my novel. You know that place—the one that happens after you’ve sent your hero off to find her heart’s desire, but before she actually gets it. Right, that place—the big, awful middle…
What to Do When Words Fail You
I have twenty minutes to write, about anything, anything at all, and therein lies the problem, the problem of too much choice. I like limits. I adore constraints. Now I’ve got 19 minutes and eight seconds. Shit. I suppose I…
The Importance of a Style Guide and Log
Here’s a comment my copyeditor, Jade Z. Scibilia, made about my last manuscript: “I laughed when you had Lynch mention the number of Johns in the police force (I recall we had to work on that in Idyll Threats). Buuuuut, we have…
Reviews: To Read or Not to Read
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a wonderful review will make little impression on an artist whereas a bad review will be seared onto said artist’s brain and heart. Like a terrible tattoo, a negative review is impossible to…