It’s finally time for the big face off and your reader is at the edge of their seat. Having the correct pacing in action scenes is essential. Otherwise your big moment will flop and the worst thing will happen: Your reader will be disappointed. Gasp! There are several tricks to making sure your pacing is on point in this critical moment. Here are my top five tricks: Factor One: Time Manipulation The scene itself is usually only a matter of … Read More »

There’s no getting around it. Every successful story has to have a low point – the place where it all goes wrong, and there’s little hope in sight. Is there any point in struggling on? Highly doubtful, probably not. It would be so much easier at this point to give up and let whatever is going to happen to your characters play itself out on the page. I give up! So your character says. So you might say. Low points … Read More »

A few weeks ago I attended a national writing conference and listened to a fascinating discussion about character and plot from the perspective of screenwriters. Structure is so important to screenwriters, probably more than it is to prose writers. But, in my opinion, it’s smart for all writers to connect with some of the methods screenwriters use to structure their stories. They see character and plot as one. A plot comes from everything that happens to a character, what he … Read More »

The saying goes, “Tell your readers everything they need to know and nothing they don’t need.” Simple enough: make it “juuust right,” like Baby Bear’s porridge. But how do you know how much is enough… or too much? I wish I could give an easy answer. If we take a look together at the possibilities, I bet you can come up with an answer on your own that fits your writing style. Too Hot! First, there’s the danger of too … Read More »

In honor of National Reading Month (March), and many other fine celebratory days this month, let’s take a look at a book for the very youngest reader/listener. After all, it is never too early to start reading to your child. But how does a writer write a wordless, or almost wordless, book? And how is it done if the writer is not also an illustrator? Obviously, one cannot simply list the few words that appear on the pages and submit … Read More »

Concrete poetry is a fun way to express creativity in a visual form. The words are shaped into an image that is representative of the poem’s theme. The challenge with this type of poetry is formatting the work on a computer if you want to send it out for publication or publish it yourself. There are professional programs out there in the Adobe suite that are perfect for this, but they have a huge learning curve. The good news is … Read More »