This week! Books! As thousands of people around the world continued protesting injustice and brutality in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and at the start of Pride month, J.K. Rowling decided to double down with views on transgender people widely seen as transphobic, first in a series of tweets, then on a more […]
writing advice
The 8 essential elements of a story
Not only do I find editing novels and helping authors achieve their vision incredibly meaningful, it’s such an interesting exercise because it forces you to think very deeply about storytelling. It’s a wonderful challenge to be forced to articulate what’s working and not working in a story and, most importantly, why it’s not working. Lately […]
Why you should start before you’re ready (This week in books)
This week! Books! Also writing! Austin Kleon has a pretty awesome blog, and I especially loved this recent post about the importance of starting an artistic work before you really think you’re ready. It’s easy to get paralyzed by the planning when in actuality it may be time to just get going. The Mister Rogers […]
7 reasons your characters feel flat
Readers have to love your characters. Full stop. Characters who feel lifelike and relatable will compel your readers to turn the pages and breathlessly await the sequels. Characters who are dull or flat will send your readers scurrying for another book. And yet it’s so tricky to really nail a lifelike character and to translate […]
How to get back in the saddle
Hello! Nice to see you again. As summer comes to a close, I hope you are feeling rested, refreshed, and ready to get back to writing no seriously your book misses you. Writing breaks are necessary. They’re important. They reacquaint you with such pleasures as nature, friends, family, and rosé. But it can be tricky […]
List of character strengths and weaknesses
Over the course of writing a novel, you should show the entire spectrum of your character’s personality. We should see their best qualities and their worst qualities on display at some point in the novel. One of the interesting things about human beings is that personality traits can cut both ways. What might be a […]
