Once you’re finished writing a novel, editing your novel is one of the absolute most important things you will do as a writer. Nearly anyone can write a first draft. Very few possess the clarity, discipline, and intestinal fortitude to make the decisions necessary to turn a mediocre first stab into an incredible novel. Here’s […]
Writing Novels
Bestsellers Christina Lauren on how to write with a co-writer and moving from fan-fiction to stardom
The fabulous duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, better known as Christina Lauren, have had quite the meteoric rise from their early days writing fan fiction. They are the authors of the NY Times Bestselling Beautiful and Wild Seasons series, they recently published their first stand-alone romance Dating You / Hating You, and will soon publish Autoboyography, which is already […]
Creativity tip: When you need inspiration, figure out what you need to know
I’m on record saying writer’s block doesn’t exist. When I say that, I’m not saying that you won’t experience a feeling of idea-lessness or that life circumstances will never get in the way of your writing. Lots of people go through stretches where it is legitimately impossible to write. What I mean is that most […]
How to flesh out a character
Great characters leap off the page and take up residence in our brains. Every quirk, every bit of dialogue, every small detail just reinforces their realness. But anyone who has written a novel knows that creating characters like that is really, really hard. Many times characters start off, well, flat. They are plugging a necessary […]
4 tips for handling multiple perspectives in a third person narrative
One of the biggest challenges with third person narratives is how to balance multiple perspectives. This isn’t always something beginning writers give much thought. Third person is third person, right? Can’t you just jump from one character to another as you need to? Aren’t all-seeing perspectives essentially the same? Nope. Head jumping can be really […]
How to get started writing a novel
With National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starting today (!!), here’s an excerpt from How to Write a Novel: 47 Rules for Writing a Stupendously Awesome Novel That You Will Love Forever, on sale now! Rule #12: You have to start somewhere So, uh, how do you get started writing a novel? Start writing! Kidding. Kind of. One mistake […]
