Happy New Year! And what a better way to start than tackling one of the knottiest issues in writing: voice. We were born with a voice. So why is it many manuscripts get rejected because an agent/editor says there’s no voice? Then we authors go off frantically searching for our voice as though we’d misplaced it somewhere. The truth of the matter is that you have a voice. It’s just that, often, an author’s voice doesn’t work for a number … Read More »

Star Wars fans aren’t the only ones obsessed with The Mandalorian. The Disney+ series, now in its second season, is five times more popular than any other program on the streaming service. Jon Favreau and his contributing writers have accomplished what no one thought was possible: adapting a brand new Star Wars storyline that is beloved by both old and new fans. This was something the three prequels couldn’t seem to do. Not only did Favreau switch back to the … Read More »

When I go to the grocery store, I like to have a list in hand. It helps me stay on track and (most of the time) keeps me from veering off into the chip/snack/candy aisle for something I don’t really need. That being said, I like to give myself the freedom to explore the “off list” aisles for new and interesting things that may or may not find their way into my cart. When I thought about the process of … Read More »

My blog today is addressed mainly to those of my colleagues who are writing a series or a trilogy, and it’s probably something you already know, but a reminder never hurts. You’ve started off your series with a great book that plunged us immediately into the time and place. Something spectacular has happened to start a chain reaction that will play out over the next few volumes. And finally, you stuck your ending, and readers are breathing heavily and saying, … Read More »

In Stephen King’s no-nonsense guide, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he includes a chapter titled, “What Writing Is.” Good question. Probably many good answers. King’s answer? It’s “Telepathy, of course.” He elucidates: when we write, we’re simply sending, by way of words, our thoughts into readers’ minds. That’s our aim—to transfer in an interesting, provocative, entertaining, informative, well-structured, and compelling way what is alive in our minds without confusing our readers. Clear telepathy We want no static to … Read More »

You’ve heard it before: Scenes are the building blocks of story. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  But it isn’t. Those blocks have complexity.Scenes are stories within the story and charged with energy. Whole books are written about how to write effective scenes, and we can spend our whole lives learning to write better and better ones. But here’s something for starters: Ten things to know about writing scenes. A scene is a small story. It has a clear beginning, middle, and … Read More »