Not having come to fiction writing through an MFA program, I was never told up front, “This is what makes a novel good.” Exactly what constituted good writing was something my longtime reader’s head had to figure out for itself: if that’s what I like in a book, then that’s the way I want my books to sound. Now — having studied writing, attended conferences, gotten feedback from editors and beta-readers, etc., etc.—having done, in short all the things we … Read More »

It’s a dark and stormy night. The electricity is off, so, TV-less, you and your Significant Other are in bed reading by clip-on battery lights. After a brief while, he/she slams down the book and says, “This book stinks. I’m going to bed.” S.O. turns off the light, pulls up the covers, and before long, you hear snoring. You, on the other hand, have hit a Golden One. You can’t put it down! You devour that book, losing track of … Read More »

Let me confess something about myself as a reader. Once I find a protagonist I love and a world I don’t want to leave, there’s nothing I crave more than another of those books! I love series! They’re especially successful for the investigative mystery or police genre, and that idea goes back a long way. Roulletabille and Maigret are lovable French prototypes, and the modern equivalents are legion. One has only to think of Inspector Gamache or Amelia Peabody or … Read More »

I have frequently come across a hybrid beast in the historical fiction woods that calls itself a biographical novel. That is, it is essentially the story of a real person’s life, but it has been, to one extent or another, fictionalized. Permit me—not as a history professional but as a reader — to scream aloud in pain. So what’s the problem? Is it historicity? My problem is not the reality-vs-fiction line. Very few authors openly deform a person’s known life. … Read More »

More than once, I’ve read a book that I considered pretty good, but the villain was so cartoonish and two dimensional that it ruined it for me. Disclaimer: books are only as good as their characters for this reader. Nothing, but nothing, can make up for shallow characters. And a cardboard villain is a deal-breaker. The principle is always that fictional characters, no matter how quirky or exceptional, should be true to life. You should be able to recognize them … Read More »

We all know that it’s better to show your protagonist’s (or any other personage’s) character than to tell the reader about it. That way, we’re “watching the movie,” not having someone review it for us. The main way to do this, of course, is to build the character’s personality into his or her actions. If they’re shy, show them hesitating to speak out. If they’re super-emotional, show them weeping at something touching. But because any one character is imbedded in … Read More »