Amazon has just come out with Vella, a new format for e-novels: the buy-by-the-episode serial. For readers, it’s less awkward than it sounds logistically, and the serial novel has a long pedigree stretching back at least into the nineteenth century. For writers, it’s a whole new adventure. I’ve just wet my toes as a serial writer and thought I’d share some reflections with anyone who’s interested in being part of this new market. Pitch ‘Em Right The best-selling genres seem … Read More »

Birds can imprint on voices before they are hatched. And studies confirm that we humans hear sounds before we are born—our mother’s heartbeats, intestinal sounds, music, and the rise and fall of spoken language. Further, researchers have found that fetuses who are spoken to in a variety of pitches have an increased interest in sounds, and the inflections in sound, after birth. Now, isn’t that what’s happening to us as poetry lovers when we hear a poem that just “feels … Read More »

I hope this unfortunate stay-at-home time finds you healthy and itching to write. Indeed, did you know that this year marks the 200th anniversary of James Fenimore Cooper’s first novel The Spy?  Many recognize Cooper as our country’s first great novelist. Since I was a teenager, his wordy novels have always drawn me in with their heroic accounts of difficult times in early America. Consequently, those of us who might want to honor Cooper this year with our own Great … Read More »

I am only an occasional writer of haiku, but I adore the form. Studying it, I’ve found that there’s a lot we can learn from haiku which we can apply to all sorts of writing—in other verse forms or in prose. Now, I bet you’re thinking: brevity. Sure. That’s the most obvious aspect of haiku. And brevity is great to keep in mind when we’re writing anything. But there are other concepts from this verse form that we can use, … Read More »

What is a hook? A hook is a plot scenario, line of dialogue, or intriguing description that makes the reader (be it an agent, editor, or someone who buys your published novel) want to continue reading. It’s something in your story that’s so compelling that the reader CAN’T put the book down. It’s the sort of thing that makes them miss their train stop or stay up late into the night cursing you when the morning alarm goes off. It’s … Read More »

Much can be said in praise of silence (is that a contradiction in terms?). There are at least two kinds of golden silence that can add to the power of our writing, just as the “space between the notes” is the silent power of music. You can probably think of more, but here are a few of my reflections. Silence of the characters We all work hard to make dialogue lifelike and pithy. Sometimes the trailing thoughts of real-life speech … Read More »