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Prose

Describe action in chronological order

August 30, 2021 by Nathan Bransford 6 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice Tagged With: Prose

Don’t over-explain “default” objects and gestures

August 2, 2021 by Nathan Bransford 2 Comments

When novels are bloated with an excessive word count, the extra words are often where you’d least expect them. In fact, when I’m editing, I often find that very long novels are among the most tightly plotted. The authors know the word count is a problem, so they trim all the extra scenes and streamline […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice Tagged With: Prose

How to write clear physical description

March 22, 2021 by Nathan Bransford 19 Comments

Movies and TV shows thoroughly dominate our modern conception of storytelling, and I often worry that clear physical description in novels has become a bit of a lost and underappreciated art. Aspiring writers often rush past scene-setting to get to conversations, which carry disproportionate weight in scenes. Over-reliance on dialogue is one of the most […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice Tagged With: Prose

Describe characters and settings when they’re first introduced

February 22, 2021 by Nathan Bransford 5 Comments

An extremely common writing foible I see when I’m editing novels reads like this… “Hey!” Nathan heard a voice say. Nathan turned to see someone approach him on the sidewalk. “What are you doing?” the man asked. “Hey, Egya! Working on a blog post about why it’s confusing when characters and settings are only belatedly […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice Tagged With: Prose

Don’t fear repeating pronouns

March 10, 2020 by Nathan Bransford 5 Comments

Allow me to reintroduce you to the word “they.” It is a useful word. A versatile word. A word that so completely disappears into the background you don’t need to worry about repeating it. For some reason lots of writers are scared of pronouns. They find all sorts of convoluted ways of avoiding them. For […]

Filed Under: Writing Advice Tagged With: Prose

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About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors achieve their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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How to Write A Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

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