We often complain that life isn’t as clear as it is in the movies. Unlike real life, stories offer definitive story arcs and concrete beginnings and endings. And, yet, ironically, it can often be difficult for writers to know just where that supposedly definitive ending point is in their stories. This ending point isn’t so […]
May 30, 2010 by 68 Comments Writing Inspiration8 Ways Writing Longhand Amps Your Muse
Whenever I crack open a hefty volume of Dickens, I’m inevitably overwhelmed by the realization this entire 800-page novel was composed by writing longhand. The writer’s bump on my middle finger throbs just thinking about it. Without doubt, our 21st-century technologic additions are a decided blessing. But we’ve also lost some things along the road to […]
May 2, 2010 by 49 Comments Editing Your NovelWhen Your Story Doesn’t Turn Out Like You Planned
How many times have you come up with a brilliant idea—a story so dazzling, a character so real, a snippet of dialogue so scintillating that it knocks you breathless—only to have it fail to live up to your vision when you started putting it on paper? If you’re like me, then the answer is every […]
April 25, 2010 by 63 Comments Editing Your Novel10 Ways to Write Skinny Sentences
If brevity is the soul of wit, then economy is the energy of prose. Let’s hear it for skinny sentences! Don’t get me wrong: I love complex, twisty, beautiful sentences. As Aleksandar Hemon pointed out in an interview with The Writer magazine: I like to push language toward poetry, to activate the dormant possibilities inherent in it. […]
March 14, 2010 by 44 Comments Editing Your NovelThe 6 Best Ways to Rewrite Your Book
Everybody who loves to rewrite your book, raise your hand! No takers? Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought. In my experience of ten novels and hundreds of short stories, rewriting ranks way at the bottom of the writing process–somewhere down there with paper cuts and insomnia. By the time you finish your beautiful story, all you […]
February 14, 2010 by 24 Comments Editing Your NovelKnow Your Own Story: Write a Novel Manifesto
You need a novel manifesto. Why? Because you’re never going to be completely objective about your stories. Trust me. You’re just too emotionally involved, too attached to your characters, too excited about your plot twists, too tickled by your snarky dialogue. And the only thing wrong with any of that is that it can make you lose sight […]
January 24, 2010 by 47 Comments Editing Your NovelIs Your Inner Editor a Voice of Discouragement? Learn How to Harness It
The infernal internal editor is the shoulder devil common to all writers. You sit down to write a simple paragraph of description, a few lines of dialogue, a scene transition—and before your finger has even hit the first period key, your inner editor is screaming in your ear. It’s not good enough! Nobody talks that way! You […]
January 4, 2010 by 74 Comments Writing Life10 Habits of Successful Authors
Still haven’t made your New Year’s resolutions yet? The following list is an excellent place to start, whether you’re jumpstarting your writing career, or whether you’ve been writing for years and need to scrape off some rust. If, by the end of the year, you can cross the following habits of successful authors off your […]
November 8, 2009 by 51 Comments Editing Your Novel6 Reasons Not to Listen to Your Critique Partners
Your critique partners, critters, alpha readers, beta readers, proofreaders, editors, loyal slaves and subjects—whatever you want to call them, they’re a vital part of any author’s arsenal. No matter how talented and studied we may be, we’re always going to need an objective pair of eyes to look at our work and point out the […]
January 26, 2009 by 56 Comments Editing Your NovelKilling Your Darlings: Learn to Self-Edit Like Joss Whedon
Let’s just admit it. We all get the urge to throttle someone from time to time. Annoying coworkers, overbearing family members, and just plain nasty members of civilization—they all bear the brunt of our frustrations and our mumbled threats. When it comes to our fiction, however, we tend to be a little more lenient about […]
