There’s Power in the Public Domain — A Guest Post by Art Holcomb

Stuck for an idea to develop? As a writer, I’m constantly looking for new approaches and new ideas to write about. I’m guessing you do the same. In recent years, there have been a number of books that have been written about characters developed by writers in the past – such as Sherlock Holmes, Dr. […]

Getting Published: The Genre-Concept Connection

Somewhere deep within the genealogical family tree that illuminates the origins of the word genre, we find another word that confuses the whole issue: generic. And that’s the problem. Your genre-based story can easily become generic – it simply becomes another face is a crowded sea of stories – rather than standing out. This very […]

The Seductive Trap of the Historical Novel

Or, how to kill off your historical novel before you write a word. I’m working with two writers on their historical novels, and both — at this stage of their development — are hobbled by a classic (common) flaw in the design of the story. That is: they have history in play, but they have […]