What story is really worth writing? Worth spending your time, energy, and imagination on? I like what Susan Sontag says, “The only story that seems worth writing is a cry, a shot, a scream. A story should break the reader’s heart.” Whenever I read that—it’s on a slip of paper tacked on corkboard above my desk—what comes to mind is flash fiction. It’s bite-size insight. It’s sudden. It surprises. What’s Flash Fiction? Whatever you call a brief prose story, it … Read More »

Writing dialogue can feel as innate (or as awkward) as having an actual conversation. Conversations convey information, carry ideas, and connect people to each other. They are do the same in a written narrative. So what is the best way to use dialogue for your story? And where can you develop it? There are rules to using dialogue: use it to advance plot, reveal character, and avoid redundancy. But there are no rules with how you pace the dialogue inside … Read More »

You’re sitting in an eatery in the Garden District in New Orleans, patting your belly after a fine meal of jambalaya, enjoying coffee and a beignet. If you’re easy-going, the cook might just add another beignet. A little something extra, no charge. Lagniappe, they call it. Feeling generous, you transfer that experience to your writing and throw in a little lagniappe at the end of your new novel. You add an epilogue. Don’t expect your editor to react with the … Read More »

One of the best novels featuring a character in self-denial — a masterpiece and one of my personal favorites — is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story follows an English butler, Mr. Stevens, as he attempts to make sense of his life in a modernizing world, one where it’s become a novelty for homes to still have old-fashioned English butlers. Stevens is clearly an unreliable narrator. Ishiguro writes the book in first person point-of-view across two … Read More »

Writers know that emotion is an important part of a story. It draws the reader in and gets them invested in what is happening. It allows them to become emotionally attached to the characters (good or bad) and either cheer them on or applaud their demise. Just a Sigh… There are passages in my story where the character audibly sighs. She’s frustrated, sad, or exasperated at the situations she’s found herself in. So I’m writing along, getting all invested in … Read More »

Let me confess something about myself as a reader. Once I find a protagonist I love and a world I don’t want to leave, there’s nothing I crave more than another of those books! I love series! They’re especially successful for the investigative mystery or police genre, and that idea goes back a long way. Roulletabille and Maigret are lovable French prototypes, and the modern equivalents are legion. One has only to think of Inspector Gamache or Amelia Peabody or … Read More »