Football season has captured the country, and baseball play-offs have begun. In post-game discussions, we often hear about the Most Valuable Players who took the game from good to great. For writers, it’s crunch season for a lot of those year-end goals. And that means it’s time to line up the MVPs of feedback. When that manuscript is complete and polished, you need to seek out feedback. But not just any feedback. You want to orchestrate the most valuable feedback … Read More »

Some time ago, I wrote a blog on unlikable protagonists, and one of my colleagues (you know who you are!) commented that the way we see a protagonist can be mediated by the narrator. That idea is so full of interesting possibilities for an author that it deserves a blog all to itself. So, here are a few ideas to add to your literary arsenal about who is going to tell your tale. To See or Not to See The … Read More »

It sounds really obvious, but I’m continually amazed at the number of aspiring fiction writers who don’t seem to pay enough attention to helping their readers tell one character from another. This is really basic if you want to produce a page turner that requires no unnecessary effort or confusion on the part of the reader. Some of the items below may indeed go without saying, while others might bear a bit more thought and planning. Yet all of them, … Read More »

When a reader opens the cover of a book, they are embarking on an adventure the writer has created for them. What should happen at the beginning of that first chapter, and subsequent chapters? Let’s explore the possibilities. First Chapter The beginning of the first chapter of a story has specific requirements, different in some ways than subsequent chapters. It’s a big ask. There’s a lot that needs to happen as soon as possible because you want to grab and … Read More »

Authors who go the extra mile in research tend to become bestsellers—Patricia Cornwell, Michael Crichton, Dave Berry, Creston Mapes, James A. Michener, David Morrell, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Herman Wouk to name a few. Some authors start out as experts, such as: Tess Gerritsen (a physician who writes crime stories featuring a coroner) Linda Fairstein (a former Manhattan Assistant DA who writes crime novels) Timothy Browne, M.D. (a missionary physician who writes inspirational medical thrillers) Frank Zafiro … Read More »

Let’s get back to those quirky, fun books that writers of all ages tend to love. And what’s not to love—tight plots, precise characterization, emotional impact—all within a very controlled 32 pages and, nowadays, often with less than 700 words. They’re not easy to write, and to get right. In fact, as the author of three novels, many poems, magazine article, and 13 picture books, I find that a good picture book is the most difficult thing I write. (Maybe … Read More »