As humans we read signals all the time. If someone flips us the finger, we know that person is angry. If someone throws their arms wide and does a little dance, we know that the person is happy about something. We communicate every day without words. Gestures reveal so much about a character, and about a situation. Reveal is the important term here—reveal/show. It speaks to that old writing adage “show, don’t tell.” When we see certain gestures by characters … Read More »

I just read a charming book, and I’d like to be able to write one. But what exactly is charm? The word comes (from Latin by way of Middle French) from carmen, an incantation, and even today it can mean an enchantment, a magic spell. Yet we often also use it in a different, more secular sense to mean —I  quote the Oxford Dictionary here — “the power or quality of delighting, attracting, or fascinating others.” Although, with all due … Read More »

When it’s time to name the characters in your story, where do you start? If you’re lucky, one or more may have already told you who they are. What about the rest? Some may be secondary characters or ones that are mentioned only once or twice, but they still need names so readers can picture them in their mind and identify with them. Let’s see what we can do about those blank spaces on your character roster. Personality Traits Take … Read More »

We all want to write elegantly. That calls for tightening lines. One way to rid excess verbiage is to cut all unnecessary prepositions and prepositional phrases. I say unnecessary because, as writers, we are also concerned about how a line sings. Sometimes prepositional phrases are needed to keep a meter, portray the voice of a persona, or enhance the lilt of the line. Barring that, here are some ways to cut unnecessary prepositions and prepositional phrases. 6 Ways to rework … Read More »

This is one of those questions that readers and writers have very different opinions about. Those who teach writing are pretty united in saying that it’s a bad idea to start a book with a dream. “But it seems so clever,” you say. “There’s that zingy moment when the character wakes up and the reader realizes that none of what she’s learned so far really happened.” Set Up for a Let Down Well, yes. But there’s also a certain element … Read More »

One of the things I love best as a reader is those books that create such a colorful sense of place that the setting becomes another character—so much so that a change in scene would change the feel of the book altogether. What would Inspector Brunetti be without Venice, right? Its geography shapes the action; its history shapes the people. Anyone who has ever visted that amazing city of water can immediately picture the ambulance taking off down the canal … Read More »