Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing
Helping authors achieve their dreams
Over the past year, a debate over whether writers should pay for editing prior to seeking publication has (somewhat inexplicably from my vantage point) become a hot topic, particularly on Threads. Some prominent published authors are on the record more or less calling anyone who pays for editing a total rube or worse. Before we […]
This image from the Telegraph inadvertently illustrates one of the most important writing concepts every write should master: The reversal. Storytelling is all about reversals, and readers are drawn to them like crazies to the Bachelor house. Still, as with many concepts in writing, I don’t believe there is a universal definition of what exactly […]
One of the things that has always mystified me about using A.I. for fiction is that the services often promise to dispense with drudgery to help you focus on the “big stuff.” What, pray tell, is the “big stuff” exactly? Sure, some scenes mark turning points and fulcrums in the overall narrative. Some are more […]
Bill Sikes. Lady MacBeth. Captain Ahab. The Wormwoods. Long John Silver. Sauron. Iago. The best villains in literature send a shiver down our spine and make our blood pressure rise. Why do some villains have such a hold on us while others feel like weak sauce? Let me first say that not every novel needs […]
Consider this post an entry in the annals of “fiction is not real life” volume #2,478. In real life, things get boring. Sometimes even extremely dramatic moments in life (weddings, funerals, deathbeds) are punctuated by stretches of utter tedium. It happens. But it’s pretty challenging to make boredom work in a novel. And the reason […]
One of the perennial bits of writing advice is that novels need conflict. I am even guilty of dispensing this advice myself. But, you might be thinking, I don’t want to write a novel where everyone is fighting all the time like it’s a Bravo reality show. I’m not packing my novel with sword fights. […]
Helping authors achieve their dreams
