For the last year and a half, I’ve written nearly a dozen drafts of a novel. I wrote (or rewrote) 1,000 words every day, cancelled plans to work on my novel, and dreamed of publication. Recently, I decided to put my novel in the drawer and move on. It was gut-wrenching, but I know it […]
Writing Advice
Don’t be too easy on your characters
We writers can get really, really attached to our characters. They become almost like family members. We want the best for them. Sometimes it can be difficult to see them make mistakes, to see their flaws, and to let the bad qualities shine through from time to time. We can be way too nice to […]
Describe action in chronological order
Have you ever read an action scene that felt a little “off” and disorienting, but you couldn’t quite pinpoint why? I would submit that it is often a result of authors who bounce around in time when they write action, which means our brains have to do extra work to piece together a chronology that […]
How interviews can help a book project
When I graduated from college I had one goal and one goal only: to write the next great American novel. There was only one problem…I had nothing to write about. The advice I’d heard was to write about what I knew, but I didn’t know very much. I’d had a comfortable (read: boring) suburban childhood, […]
Should you share your work-in-progress with friends and family?
If you tell a close friend or family member that you’re writing a book, it’s highly possible they will ask to read it. Maybe they feel obligated to ask. Or maybe they genuinely want to support you. But whatever the reason, showing your work-in-progress to close friends or family can introduce some non-trivial complications, both […]
What to cut when your book is too long
“Kill your darlings” is one of the most repeated bits of writing advice out there, but how do you know which darlings to murder? You need to decide what to cut from a novel, but it can be tricky. Word counts matter. They don’t matter endlessly, as novels like Twilight attest, but an overly long […]
