Reprise: What Are My Odds of Getting Published?
Before we get into that… I’d like to invite you all to visit “Conquer All Obstacles,” a wonderful website created by a writer’s writer and promotions expert, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen. She was gracious enough to allow me to guest blog on her site yesterday (Thursday, July 2) and I hope you’ll visit and see what this […]
Fatal Distractions: Six Things That Will Tank Your Story Every Time
The oldest and perhaps best morsel of writing advice ever is to read. You can’t play tennis having never seen the game (not so with golf; you can watch it until your eyeballs bleed and you’ll still suck) and you can’t write publishable fiction until you’ve absorbed enough storytelling to intuitively recognize what works. Trouble […]
Polishing the Revision of the Rewrite of your Updated Drafts
I hate rewriting. I know I shouldn’t. The masters — Michner, King, Dr. Phil — swear by it. Michner said he was an average writer but a master rewriter. Not sure what King or Dr. Phil said, but I’ve heard at least one of them endorse rewriting as a critical element of the creative process. […]
Drumroll… Introducing The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling
Okay, maybe not so much with the drumroll… there are thousands of writers from workshops I’ve taught around the country who have heard me stump this speech like an evangelist. There’s really nothing new under the sun when it comes to writing, it is what it is. But there are a multitude of ways to […]
Get Published by Cultivating Your Own Personal “It” Factor.
When Simon Cowell – he of the insensitive feedback and lousy metaphors from American Idol – evaluates an unknown singer, he says he is looking for the “it factor.” So are publishers where writers are concerned. (Cowell is also looking for sex appeal. Sexiness in a writer is pure coincidence; sexiness in writing, however, is […]
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 […]
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 […]