Here’s me staring at a blank computer screen. You guessed it. I’m starting the first chapter of a new novel. Since I write historical mystery and this will be the 5th in the series, I know my protagonist well. That puts me a step ahead. However, since this novel is set in a new locale, I’ll need to do research. The advantage of writing historical fiction is that you get the fun of imagining yourself in a different time and … Read More »

Dialogue can be tricky for many writers. The way we talk and the way we think doesn’t always look right on the page. New writers often struggle creating dialogue that doesn’t sound stilted, forced, or just plain weird. When I first started writing, I was terrible at dialogue. It sounded unnatural, it went on too long, and I wasn’t sure of the rules of formatting. So I started paying attention to the dialog I read, I practiced it by using … Read More »

We’ve all experienced a high school teacher or college professor expounding on a given story’s “theme.” Those with a sense of the bigger picture can more easily parse a novel-length story into its theme(s) than the rest of us. Occasionally debates break out regarding the central theme of a novel or whether a novel is “literary” only if there’s a clear and well-supported theme on which all elements of the story hang. I subscribe to the theory that while a … Read More »

Among all the problems of authenticity the conscientious writer of historical fiction must face is the one I call the Problem of the Plucky Heroine. By this, I mean a character who is out of character for his or (more frequently) her times. Whose values are strangely modern. Who is, in short, an anachronism, probably designed to attract the modern reader. Is this really a problem, or is it a legitimate way to engage readers who want to read about … Read More »

Netflix just launched its latest series, The Haunting of Hill House, an atmospheric, timely addition to its October fare. So it seems like a good time to resurrect that show’s source material as we set out the pumpkins, coat the door with ectoplasm, and cob the webs for All Hallows Eve. In an earlier column, I talked about setting as a literary character in itself, something inseparable from the story. I used Manderley, in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938), to … Read More »

No matter what the genre, a bit of sexual tension can perk up your storytelling. Years ago I wrote romance novels. This is what that experience taught me. Love is a lot more interesting when it’s all about the conflict. Readers are surprised when I tell them that a romance is a love story. But not all love stories are romances. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a love story. The conflict in that classic play is not between the lovers. … Read More »