Is your protagonist a surly recluse, a man or woman of few words, a guy with a drinking problem and an attitude? That describes a lot of lead characters in mystery novels. Still, like the rest of us, your antisocial hero /heroine needs somebody to talk to. Invariably students in my novel writing courses wanted to open their first chapters with detailed biographies and lengthy physical descriptions of their protagonist. It’s tempting. Once you’ve got all that background information out … Read More »

While a novel set in the past is fiction and has a right to present imaginary events and personages, it is not (normally) fantasy, and thus certain standards of authenticity must be observed. Otherwise, it moves into the category of alternative history. Different readers will obviously bring differing standards of expectations to this issue, but it seems worthwhile for us writers to consider what our own standards are. Because authenticity makes historical fiction a doubly demanding genre: a historical novel … Read More »

Got a story you’re itching to get out, but worried there’s not enough material to turn it into a full-length novel for adults? Consider following the lead of Jackie Minniti and her novel Jacqueline, written for middle grade readers. It’s the simple, straightforward tale of a little girl in France during the Second World War. The story relates the fictionalized account of her father’s experience there as an American GI. Jacqueline’s family clings together, her own father missing in the … Read More »

“Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.” Perhaps Bernard Malamud’s quote is overstating it, but revision is certainly where the hard work of writing takes place. And it can be overwhelming. Everything from the flow of the story arc to the grammar and spelling checks are done during this stage of the process. While trying to do a revision for every aspect of the story at once can be overwhelming, focusing on one small area can be a … Read More »

Writing a story with a physical villain? Whether our hero’s adversary is an eighth-grade bully, a civilization–busting alien super villain, or a historical bad guy from our culture’s point of view, they all have one thing in common. They think they are justified in their actions. To get into our villains’ heads, we have to empathize with them. All Villains Want to be Understood Our stories benefit from outlining our hero’s backstory, whether that backstory is revealed or not. It … Read More »

Are you a mystery writer? If so, do you write “Hard Boiled” or “Cozy?” Since I write in the genre, it’s important for me to know where my stories fit on the mystery spectrum. Yet these days that gradient is crowded and murky. It’s confusing, but I think my protagonist is the key to the answer. In what was arguably mystery’s golden age when Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane and Ross Macdonald were making their marks, a clear partition … Read More »