Saddle up the bronco, batten the hatches, take cover, and grab some popcorn. It’s climax time. Near the end of a novel, your characters will confront their biggest obstacles, all the simmering plots and subplots will come to a head, and oh, yes, it helps if the climax comprises your best, most dramatic, and most […]
Writing Novels
How to outline a novel
Before we get to this post on how to create an outline for your novel, let me first acknowledge the scientific law that all writers can be classified as planners or pantsers. Some writers outline their novel in advance (ye olde planners), other writers work via the seat of their pants with no idea where […]
How to organize a chapter
Too many writers treat their chapters like tanks of gas. They take off without really knowing where they’re going, drive around aimlessly until they run out of fuel, sputter to a stop, and then they start the next chapter after someone takes pity on them and tows them somewhere new. This is the wrong way […]
How to choose your novel’s perspective
Your novel might have a great plot. You might have great characters. You might have a great setting. But if you don’t know your novel’s perspective? It can sink everything you’ve worked so hard to accomplish. Perspective is everything in a novel. And yet too often when I’m editing authors’ manuscripts I see a mishmash […]
You tell me: Do you outline your novel?
Some writers architect and outline their novels like they’re building the Sistine Chapel. Some fly by the seat of their pants like they’re riding a bucking bronco. And some, of course, do both like they’re… um… riding a bucking bronco within the Sistine Chapel? Do you outline? And more importantly for those of you who […]
Everything you need to know about novel word counts
Ah, word count. Few elements of the book-writing process inspire such hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing as trying to constrain your novel within certain seemingly arbitrary bounds. In this post I’m going to tell you: Why word count matters for novels Standard word count ranges for various genres The word counts of some famous novels for comparison […]
