Cruella De Vil, Darth Vader, Thanos, Lord Voldemort, the White Witch, Bellatrix Lestrange, the Joker, Hannibal Lecter, Shere Khan, Nurse Ratched—what do all these characters have in common? Not only are they the villains of the stories in which they appear, in...
Long ago in a universe far far away, I left my job at Macmillan Books in NYC to go to Seattle and attend the Clarion West Workshop for writers of science fiction and fantasy. The workshop is transformative, but listening to hours of peer review is tough…so the day’s...
Rules are meant to be broken, right? I asked some of our editors to weigh in on rules of writing and not be negative, but we ended up with a great list of rules to break. In the end there really is only one rule to keep. 1. Write/meditate on what you know. If all...
Microsoft Word has been a reliable computer program for as long as most of us can probably remember—starting way back when computers first came onto the mainstream scene. Word is a great program, but has it become more of a habit rather than the most efficient...
Memoir is one of the most popular genres among first-time writers. What story does one know more intimately than one’s own life? Still, writers who tackle memoirs often do so on the mistaken assumption that such a text might be straightforward and simple because it...
In the YA paranormal, sci-fi, and fantasy romance arenas, the books selling the most share a number of things in common. Here is a breakdown of the top 10 tropes:
How do you write a novel that feels fresh and contains all the elements of a bestselling historical romance? This guide will help you make sure you know the keys to success.
If you are researching “sensitivity readers,” it’s likely that you have written into your novel a mentally ill character and you’re concerned about portraying that character accurately and humanely.
People generally go one of two ways when they start working on their manuscript. Either they start adding in extra material until the manuscript is so bloated it’s bursting at the seams, or they strip it down in desperation and turn the work into a skeleton of what it...
If you want to write about a topic and can dumb it down (i.e., simplify) enough to appeal to an idiot (i.e., a curious reader), follow these guidelines.
In the first phase of editing fiction—some call it “development editing”—I focus on the structural issues in the crafting of the novel, such as point-of-view; character development; plot and subplots; and balance among action, interior monologue, and dialogue. I hope...
Turning an idea into something other people will read and buy involves ten steps in three phases.