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Choose Wisely: Metaphors in Character
photo by katerha Nothing scotches believability faster than a character who doesn’t sound right. Much of the time these are mistakes of vocabulary, like a third-grader who uses the word...
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The Foolish Writer and the Wise
Image by WordRidden You’re no fool. Right? But is it possible, perhaps, that you do foolish things sometimes? It is. We all do. As writers, we’ve pretty much all wrong-footed it at least once or twice....
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On Rejection and Beyond
photo by Alex E. Proimos Somebody will tell you no. It’s going to happen. It has probably happened already. It might happen today, or tomorrow, or every day next week and then some. Maybe it happened...
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Be Here To Learn
Image by Anne Davis In her speech at Book Expo America (BEA) last week, Divergent superauthor Veronica Roth talked about her experiences as a reader and a writer. Like many of us who love writing as...
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Strength In Weakness
photo by JD Hancock We all have our strengths and weaknesses as writers, don’t we? In my case, I’ve found they’re often the same. A talent for detailed description, taken too far, becomes a quicksand...
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Drive, Don’t Chase
photo by Viernest It’s tempting. It’s so tempting. You see a trend happening, a type of book that seems to sell gangbusters, and you say to yourself, I could do that. Could you? Probably. Should you?...
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Is Advice a Vice?
image by Trace Meek This will seem like an odd question from someone who expends a lot of energy giving writing and publishing advice in a half-dozen arenas: attending a weekly critique group, writing...
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Interview with Robb Cadigan
What do George Pelecanos, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and the Giant Foods in Baltimore have in common? They all played a role in the journey that brought Robb Cadigan’s debut novel PHOENIXVILLE...
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Happy NaDoToYoNoMo!
Finally, it’s December! If you participated in November’s National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, you probably spent most of November sweaty and caffeinated, hermited and muttering, pushing...
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Mantra For the Novelist
image by mailumes You are a novelist. You’ve never told anyone, not in those words. They haven’t asked. Or maybe you have said it, out loud, and gotten strange looks in return. They ask you if you’re...
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The Out-of-Control Author
image by CJS*64 When you’re writing just for yourself, you’re in control. Of everything. You control what your characters do, what they say and think and wear, what happens to them, where their story...
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MFA vs NYC vs DIY
image by Alex Bellink Last week my Twitter stream lit up with reviews and excerpts and analysis of a book called MFA vs NYC. It wasn’t quite a #sharknado level of traffic — closer, perhaps, to...
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Should You Read About Writing?
photo by decor plans A writer friend of mine recently moved offices, and in doing so, had to downsize his book collection. He purged several dozen books about writing. Offering them to a group of us...
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The Green-Eyed Conference Monster
The internet has done lots of amazing things for writers; it has also created lots of opportunities for us to be aware, at all times, of exactly what we’re missing. May is a prime time for writers’...
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When Your Book is Not Your Book
image by David Lasky Even before my first book came out, people were already asking about my second book, and the questions haven’t stopped. Which is pretty great — far better for people to be...
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The Labor of Launch
image by Ashley Webb It’s not uncommon, especially among those of us who are both writers and moms, to compare books and babies. For a while there was even a blog called Book Pregnant. In my...
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You’re Such a Character
Image by The Magic Tuba Pixie As an author, especially one just starting out, you’re often told about the importance of your “brand.” You’re lectured that how you act on social media, what you talk...
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Social Media the Second Time Around
image by Steven Depolo As I’ve mentioned here before, my next book is coming out under a pseudonym — which is energizing and daunting in equal measure. One area where the chickens are really coming...
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Learning to Love the Synopsis
Image by Kamile There are those who say writing the query and/or the synopsis of the novel is harder than writing the entire novel. I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I’ve always hated writing synopses....
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The Dangers of Storytelling
image by Surian Soosay As writers, storytelling is our business and our art. It’s our core skill. Writing is about putting words together to create a coherent tale, taking our readers on an unexpected...
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