Jul 18, 2016Picky questions on the novelFor writers, what is the hardest part of a novel? Maybe it’s page 1 and page 400–and many big chunks in between. Some books go like that....
Sep 17, 2012The eccentric and the cruelCall it a light bulb moment. The moment when I put together two subsets of character and plot, to realize why most novels fail. First...
Sep 7, 2011Tiptoeing into storyHow do stories come to a writer? Usually they don’t arrive whole cloth, with clarity and stunning originality. Sometimes stories don’t...
Aug 18, 2010Writing in Scenes, Part 1People shake their heads in bemused wonder. How do you get a novel written? How can it possibly be done, given how–well, long it is?...
Jun 8, 2010The Power of SecretsIs your story riding a powerful concept, occupied by empathetic characters, solidly written–and falling a bit flat? One aspect of the...