We’ve all heard of (and endured) the “messy middle” of a story. When I get there, I start to feel fatigued; perhaps my characters do, too. They also seem uncertain, hesitant, and fearful of what’s to come. They hold back with good reason — the middle of my stories contains the low point, and what’s coming won’t be good. Since they’re not inclined to help, I need to figure out how to get through it and bring those that will … Read More »

It’s October, and pumpkin spice latte is in the air. So is a renewed popular interest in one of America’s greatest poets, Emily Dickinson. And because she enjoyed a bit of the macabre in her work, let’s celebrate her this spooky month. We associate Edgar Allan Poe with anything simultaneously poetic and macabre, with obvious good reason. And Dickinson was undoubtedly influenced by Poe. Everyone read him, after all. And like him, Dickinson often explored darkness in her writing. A … Read More »

Figures of speech enliven our poems and stories. My favorite is metaphor. There’s an old silly saying, “What’s a metaphor for?” I say metaphors are for doing life-enhancing jobs, like surgeons. Acting as a surgeon, a metaphor can inject life into a tired sentence, replace a worn-out cliché, and heal a broken story. Merriam-Webster tells us metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place … Read More »

Not having come to fiction writing through an MFA program, I was never told up front, “This is what makes a novel good.” Exactly what constituted good writing was something my longtime reader’s head had to figure out for itself: if that’s what I like in a book, then that’s the way I want my books to sound. Now — having studied writing, attended conferences, gotten feedback from editors and beta-readers, etc., etc.—having done, in short all the things we … Read More »

Pacing is key in stories. If your pacing is off, an editor, agent, or reader will get bored with your book. One key element in getting your pacing just right is narrative balance. Narrative balance is the ratio of dialogue to narration in a text. Page after page of narration bogs down the pacing and becomes boring for the reader. Conversely, extended scenes of just dialogue reads too quickly, and the reader gets lost. The appropriate balance between dialogue and … Read More »

I love a story with details. I think they have the power to bring a story to life, make it believable, and put the reader right where you want them — hooked, immersed, and with the feeling that they are actually there with your characters. But I would caution against meaningless detail. You want those you choose to be accurate/believable, and you want them to fulfill their purpose. You must choose carefully — if you’re lucky, they’ll provide layers of … Read More »