30 Things I’ve Learned About the Writing Life
On Thanksgiving, I celebrated 30 years since the sale of my first book. It’s a crazy milestone and made me consider this writing and publishing [Read More]
Advice from Writers
Flog a Pro: would you pay to turn the first page of this bestseller?
Trained by reading hundreds of submissions, editors and agents often make their read/not-read decision on the first page. In a customarily formatted book manuscript with [Read More]
It’s That Time Again
As the end of the year looms large, we writers should be thinking about strategic planning. I know—it sounds like work. Boring work. But, honestly, [Read More]
Theme Me Up: How to Develop Your Novel’s Theme
Theme is an often overlooked tool in a writer’s toolbox. Here’s another look at finding the greater meaning in your story. Several years ago [Read More]
Stupid Writing Rules: Why One Size Fits All Advice Doesn’t Work
Ruth Harris and I have both written about how there are no rigid rules for writing good fiction, only guidelines. Even guidelines don’t apply to [Read More]
How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book: Writing about People You Know: Do You Need to Get Permission?
A reader from Connecticut is finishing up her new novel this month, getting ready to send it out to agents. She sent me a good [Read More]
The 3 Types of Compounds
This post discusses the three types of compounds in English: compound nouns, compound modifiers, and compound verbs. Compound Nouns Compound nouns come in three forms: [Read More]
Cliffhangers: How to Write a Story Your Readers Can’t Put Down
It’s no secret that the time-tested method of using cliffhangers at the end of your chapters or scenes is a sure-fire way to make that [Read More]
Sailing into the End of the Year
My father had his own set of proverbs that he dispensed like wisdom from the mountaintop. Even though it’s been decades since I lived in [Read More]
41 Words That Are Better Than Good
The soul of writing is specificity, yet all too often, we lean on general-purpose words instead of choosing the most precise ones. Most of our [Read More]
The 9-Minute Novelist: How to Write a Novel in Just Minutes a Day
Writing a novel is a complicated equation involving a lot of variables and moving parts—not the least of which are the authors themselves. In fact, [Read More]
20 Tips to Improve your Writing Productivity
So you’d like your latest writing project to get moving faster. Great writers have felt the same. Don’t worry, it’s fixable. When the words stop, [Read More]
Five Reasons Not to do NaNoWriMo
We’re three days into November. Or, as many of think about it, three days into National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Cathy wrote a great post [Read More]
How to Improve Your Writing Practice with Composting
By John Dorroh Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones, a book that all writers need to own and use, convincingly suggests to develop [Read More]
How Authors Can Get the Most Out of Twitter
Nathan Bransford is the author of the Jacob Wonderbar series and How to Write a Novel, which NY Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called “the [Read More]
The Bikini Wax Theory of Writing
Some people talk about writing like they are chasing butterflies along the pretty garden paths of their manuscripts. Like their words frolick with Disney characters. [Read More]
How to Nail the First Three Pages
Let’s face it, talking about writing the first pages of a novel is stressful. It can strike terror into the heart of even the most [Read More]
Things I Wish I Knew Before Self-Publishing My Book
When I was 14 years old, I wrote a poem entitled “Does A Giraffe Ever Feel Small?” that tells the story of six animals and [Read More]
This is a Truly Bizarre Way to Write a Novel
I’m a tinkerer by temperament. My most frequent nerdy joke with my writing students is that if you sat me down at a computer every [Read More]
Planning To Write Something Today? Tips for Setting Writing Goals that Work
Lynn Dickinson shares tips to help writers honestly examine their writing routines to make the changes necessary to achieve their writing goals. As an assignment, [Read More]
Things I Wish I Knew Before Self-Publishing My Book
Over the course of four years, this poem morphed into a children’s book by the same name that I self-published with my friend and illustrator, [Read More]