Know Your Strengths as a Writer
Want to use your writing strengths to reach your readers? My two greatest strengths as a writer are: I can make you think and I can make you laugh. Sometimes … Continue reading
Favorite Writing Advice: Adding Tension to Your Story
One simple idea can give your story much-needed tension. One phrase — one sentence, really — can help most authors make their stories more tense, more dramatic, more gripping. “If … Continue reading
Getting Your Book Published: Labor, Luck or Kismet?
Every time somebody says, “Things happen for a reason,” I say, “Yeah, but it doesn’t have to be a good reason.” I’m not exactly a believer in what you’d call … Continue reading
Can You Learn More From Fiction Than Nonfiction?
Learning a little something from everything you read. I’ve said it a hundred times if I’ve said it once: “Write what you know, read what you don’t.” Writing what you … Continue reading
Learning to Write from the Ides of March
In honor of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, here’s a blog post from a few years (and one month) back. It’s March 15, the famous Ides of … Continue reading
Hidden Meanings in a Story Every Author Finds
Finding messages and meanings in your story you didn’t know were there. Remember that high school or college English class where a student pointed out some hidden meaning in a … Continue reading
5 Steps to Making Your Minor Characters Exciting
Keep your characters from blending into the background. (This is the second part of a two-part post. Click to read 5 Steps to Making Minor Historical Figures Exciting.) I’ve known … Continue reading
5 Steps to Making Minor Historical Figures Exciting
(This is the first of two parts. The second focuses on fiction – Five Steps to Making Your Minor Characters Exciting) Everybody has a story to tell, but some stories … Continue reading
What’s Your Motivation to Write?
Psychologists say there are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsically motivated people do it for the satisfaction; extrinsically motivated people do it for the reward. Both approaches work, … Continue reading
Keep Your New Year’s Writing Resolution
Is it really all about commitment to the craft of writing or is there another way? There’s this image of the writer slaving away at the computer for endless hours … Continue reading
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