The Color Purple: Don’t Let Your Writing Style Stink Up Your Story

It’s the middle of the night.  The Storyfixer can’t sleep.  Because I absolutely have to tell you this.  Now.  If I don’t, I’ll wake up and not remember this killer title. And, if it weren’t the middle of the night, I’d never refer to myself in the third person, I swear. Nummero uno rookie/beginning/amateur writing […]

Book Signings from Hell. (Part 2)

Author’s note: You don’t have to read these two posts in sequence to feel my pain.  But the prior post kicked off this little reminiscent rant, and I recommend you read both to feel the whole experience.  If you plan to publish, this is a little preview of your life. Book Signings from Hell – […]

Book Signings from Hell. They Could Happen to You. (Part 1)

Let’s be honest, we all fantasize about book signings long before we get our first publishing deal.  We put ourselves in Harlan Coben’s place and look out at a sea of adoring faces while waxing humble about how you’re not nearly as cool as your suave and resourceful protagonist, and then asking the name of […]

Writing to Publish: The Most Important Element of Your Novel

I won’t deny it, coming out with a claim that one part of a novel is more important than others is always going to be fodder for a rousing critique group debate.  Certainly, at the end of the writing day, all parts of a great novel come together to comprise something that is unquestionably a […]

Better Writing by Studying the W.I.P. of Others

W.I.P. — Works In Progress If the name of this site sounds remotely familiar — I’m not kidding myself, I’d be pleasantly surprised if it does — that’s because Storyfix.com used to be about pitching my story coaching and consultation service (still available here, by the way).  Over the course of three years I had […]

The Best Stylist Writing Thrillers Today

No, it’s not me. His name is Colin Harrison. There’s great value in studying the work of others. This goes for good books, great books and lousy books — there’s always something to learn. But to learn it, you need to understand the criteria of a well written story.  And if you’re a writer, that […]

Why Stephen King Is Full of Sh*t

Oh, the horror!  This mid-list hack is calling out the master of the writing universe.  Well, this mid-list hack can tell you precisely why Stephen King is full of shit, at least on one count.  In his memoir On Writing, King tells us how we should write our stories.  Because that’s how he writes them: […]

Why Nobody Will Publish Your Novel

Perhaps the only thing more mystifying than understanding how to write a good novel is getting your head around the notion of selling one.  You read some of the drivel under the name of a “New York Times Bestselling author,” and you wonder what the folks in New York are smoking.  You see novel after […]

The Best Book on Writing I’ve Ever Read

The best gifts come unexpectedly, sometimes in unlikely wrappers. My journey as a writer has been typically long, arduous, ecstatic and occasionally both painful and fruitful, and along the way I’ve studied the craft in various forms. That journey has required several business cards, in no particular order (because I do them concurrently and intermittently): […]

Show me the money: how to get paid for your writing… beginning today!

Nearly everyone who writes has one thing in common: we do it because we love it. But one of the dark little secrets of the avocation is that the more you do it for money, the less you do it for love. Writing becomes work, and while it’s perfectly normal to love your work, it’s […]