Small Things That Will Make Your Writing Life Easier
Writing a novel takes time.
Often it takes a LOT of time.
I’m a fairly fast writer and still a new novel can take months. Some of this is the attrition of physically typing all the words, but some of it is spent on those little moments where we are writing and find ourselves stuck for long moments, frozen at the keyboard while our brain does the mental equivalent to the little spinning thing on your computer.
What is “Bad Writing?” (And How Can We Avoid It?)
One of the reader pet peeves that came up a while back was bad writing. We writers notice bad writing far more easily than readers, because we know the rules. For us, the writing is critical, but for a reader, it’s more about the story.
How to Write Can’t-Look-Away Chapter Breaks (What I Learned Writing Storming)
Chapter breaks in novels are like the Becher’s Brook jump in National Velvet. That’s where the bodies pile up. Many a book has been declared dead to its reader and cast aside never to be remembered–and all because the reader reached a chapter break and didn’t care enough to keep reading.
The Fatal Flaw in Weak Descriptions
When James Michener wrote Alaska, he spent the opening chapters describing the geological formation of the North American continent, and readers “watched” the gradual emergence of the Alaskan terrain—at just about the speed of those glaciers moving across the earth’s surface.
That style—broad, distant, and comprehensive—followed a long line of novelists from Defoe to Hugo into the last century. But like most aspects of novel writing, description has grown sharper over time.
The Big Reason Why Agents and Editors Often Stop Reading
As a reader, a writer, and an agent, I read thousands of stories a year—or at least the opening pages of thousands of stories. And, all other things being equal, the reason I most often stop reading is a lack of narrative thrust.
As a reader, a writer, and an agent, I read thousands of stories a year—or at least the opening pages of thousands of stories. And, all other things being equal, the reason I most often stop reading is a lack of narrative thrust.
3 Simple Tricks to Create a Character OH SO Different From YOU
Have you ever written a character you thought you couldn’t portray well because he was too different from you? In this post, Alex lays out three secrets on how to make a character like that come to life. Please give him a hand once again!
Writers, Wipe That Smile off Your Page
It’s been said (by someone) that 93% of communication is nonverbal, and of that, 55% is pure body language, including facial expressions, hand gestures, and postures.
I read a large number of blogs and sites every week and will be curating them here, on my blog. If you want to see my picks of the best articles each week, just subscribe below. You’ll get an email every other weekend with a list of the fiction writing articles I found most interesting or useful.