One of the most important aspects of any novel that aspires to literary quality is the depth of the characterizations. Unless the book is completely plot driven (is there any such book?), it’s through the characters that readers will be able to identify with and be drawn into your story and your world.  This becomes a particularly acute issue in historical fiction, where strange names, customs, and world views may make identification just a little bit harder for many people. … Read More »

I’m a grammar bully. I don’t mean to be a bully, but when it comes to wrong usage, I am. At least for some of them. If I walk into a restaurant with a chalkboard that has misspelled or misused items on it, I can’t help myself. Sometimes all I have to do is wipe my finger across a misplaced apostrophe. If there’s a way, I’ll fix it. Lie/Lay One bit of grammar in particular is used incorrectly over and … Read More »

A story without conflict is not a story. If Jonah had gone directly to Nineveh as God told him to, Jonah would be forgettable. We remember Jonah’s story because he tried to avoid God’s directive by taking a boat somewhere else, got thrown overboard by the boat crew, and a whale swallowed him and spit him out on the shore of Nineveh. Lots of conflicts here. Man versus God. Man versus man. Man versus himself. Man versus Nature. You get … Read More »

Today’s post takes off from where we left our Sculpting the Shapley Sentence, Part I. We’re going to look at five more techniques that might be used once you’re closing in on final revisions and really want certain sentences/phrases/sections to stick with your readers. Take a look at these quotes and then we’ll discuss what it is that makes them successful. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein … Read More »

I’ll be completely honest: Doing research is not one of my favorite pastimes. There are lots of things I’d rather be doing than pore over some dry and musty tome with almost as many pages of footnotes as of actual text But as a writer of history-based fiction it tends to come with the territory. Over the years I’ve learned to accept this as a “necessary evil” — and also to develop some less tedious ways of finding out what … Read More »

When the main character in a story is created, the reader needs to be able “see” a fully-formed individual they can connect with and invest in for the duration of the story. He/she cannot be a teetering paper doll or a penciled stick figure struggling to grab and hold the reader’s attention. Let’s see what we can do about that. A Physical Body Would your reader recognize your MC (main character) if they walked into the room? Would you, the … Read More »