I’ve been hard at work revising and updating my guide to writing a novel, with two new rules and many expanded and polished chapters. Better yet: It will be available as an audiobook very soon! This is all of my best writing advice all in one place. Even if you’re a regular reader, you’ll appreciate […]
Don’t establish a mystery without giving us a reason to care (Page critique)
If you’d like to nominate your own page or query for a public critique, kindly post them here in our discussion forums: Nominate Your First Page for a Critique on the Blog Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog And, of course, if you need help more urgently or privately, I’m available for edits and […]
Why it works: “Go Tell It on the Mountain” by James Baldwin
A lot of the writing advice out there focuses on what NOT to do. “Why it works” is my occasional series where I take books I love and try to pinpoint what the author does especially well. Today’s entry: Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, which I recently re-read. When you’re a […]
5 ways to make a character more sympathetic
We want our readers to care about our characters when writing a novel, even the evil ones, but sometimes those characters just end up feeling two-dimensional. I’ve covered what to do when characters are feeling flat, but what if you want to make a character more sympathetic too? This need will often arise when you […]
The new “Hunger Games” book title (This week in books)
This week! Books! It was a distracting week if you pay attention to our unraveling democracy but I still caught some books links this week and will be sharing them with you… now. Well, speaking of dystopias, Hunger Games is coming back! The new prequel now has a title and cover: The Ballad of Songbirds […]
Make your plot tangible (Query critique)
If you’d like to nominate your own page or query for a public critique, kindly post them here in the discussion forums: Nominate Your First Page for a Critique on the Blog Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog And, of course, if you need help more urgently or privately, I’m available for edits […]