Blog
Advice for Writers: Discipline, Motivation, and Jerry Seinfeld
It’s fair to say Jerry Seinfeld has achieved a modicum of success over his decades-long career. And while he’s best known as a comedian or actor, his oeuvre is really rooted in writing…
Reference Books For Novelists
Writing a story is tough; making it credible and preparing the manuscript for editing add more challenge. Savvy novelists have a well-stocked home library, containing (for Americans) at least these reference works.
What Not To Do When Writing Children’s Books
Just as writing children’s books has a unique set of rules to follow, there are some things you should never do. Don’t even consider doing any of the following in a book for children:
Tips For Writing Books For Younger Children
Keep the following 12 commandments in mind. (As with most commandments, you may be able to dance around one or two, but you’d better have a good reason.)
Fighting In Fiction – Novel Writing Advice
If you’re an author who has worked hard to make your characters realistic and believable, be careful with fight scenes. Too often credulity is spoiled when people suddenly become idiots or superheroes.
Finished Your Novel?
Congratulations! So What Are Your Next Steps? If you’ve finished writing a novel, then you know the great feeling that comes with typing THE END, making sure the file is saved (and hopefully backed up at least a couple other places), and pushing back from your desk with a smile. You did the work and […]
Recapturing Your Main Story From An Overgrown Plot
So, the plot of what began as a simple-enough story has become less a sturdy structure and more a jungle, complete with crossed and tangled vines. If this has happened to you, you may have no idea how you got here. You only remember adding a reflective scene or two to...
How to Craft a Science Fiction Novel
Successful science fiction and fantasy books tend to have similarities in their plots. Characters go through some variation of events, generally in this order:
How To Write Fiction – Top Resources For Novelists
If you’re a novelist and looking for a good book on the craft of writing, you likely have realized after perusing the Internet that you have about a bazillion choices. So, where do you start? Well, it may grate on some people’s beliefs but, technically, you don’t need any books on writing to be an […]
How To Format A Manuscript Using Microsoft Word
Authors submit manuscripts in a hodgepodge of formats. Part of my job as a copy editor is to fix the formatting to publishers’ standards. Here’s how to format your novel or memoir so it looks professional.
What Book Reviewers Look For – Book Reviewers For Authors
All of the basic elements literary critics look for revolve around the same endpoint: what kind of experience the book will provide a reader. And to determine that, there are a couple essential questions reviewers tend to ask themselves.
Should I Hire A Literary Agent?
It’s possible to market and sell manuscripts on your own, but literary agents are trained to negotiate and have existing contacts in the publishing world.
How to Write a Thriller
Imagine an interesting person with a serious problem. Ideally this is a problem you know something about, if not, do some research. The problem ought to be something that people care about and can picture themselves facing, even if it takes place on another planet, or is set in a world where magic is mainstream. […]
Coping with Technical Errors
A problem I often encounter in novels, whether writing or editing them, is great ideas that don’t work logistically. Readers are good at spotting bloopers, and once they’ve found one, they usually don’t trust the author for the rest of the novel. They might even stop reading or pan the book in a review. So […]
Don’t Write A Script When You’re Trying To Write A Novel
Film and literature are two different media. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. When you choose the novel as your medium, make the most of its particular strengths.
