Craft Books
Winner: 2020 Next Generation Indie Books Awards… Writing Winner: International Book Awards (Category: Businees: Writing/Publishing) “The minute I saw the “Great Stories…” proposal in my inbox, I knew it needed to be part of the WD lineup. I grabbed a highlighter and started taking notes for my own writing then and there! While I always […]
Coaching
Story Coaching: For when you feel a new set of eyes, professional eyes, is just what you need to take your story to the next level. What it is… how it works. Quite simply, I’m here to help you with your novel. It’s less a partnership in actually creating the story, beat by beat, than […]
Old Craft Books
Winner: 2020 Next Generation Indie Books Awards… Writing Winner: International Book Awards (Category: Businees: Writing/Publishing) “The minute I saw the “Great Stories…” proposal in my inbox, I knew it needed to be part of the WD lineup. I grabbed a highlighter and started taking notes for my own writing then and there! While I always […]
Storyfix: What’s here… what’s new… what’s next.
That last one is a question I’d like your help in answering. Use the comment section below to tell me what you’d like to see here next. I’m thinking another series that does a deep dive into a critical facet of the novel writing proposition… much like the 19-part series I did in May on […]
Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 18
The Two Forms — and Applications — of Premise In the last entry in this series (Part 17), you were introduced to the Eight Essential Criteria for Premise. Premise may begin with a Big Idea, or sometimes premise is what leads the writer to a Big Idea… but in all cases — no exceptions here […]
The Whole Ballgame: Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 17
Introducing the essential magic of PREMISE. This post might change the trajectory of your career as a novelist. It just might be the singular awareness that gets you over whatever lull or hump or wall you believe you are stuck behind. If you are already an experienced writer, your response might be… “well duh….” (which, […]
Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 15
Today’s excerpts are from Chapter 5: Realities, Odds, and Other Inconveniences It’s true, we sometimes must kill our darlings. Evolved writers tell us that at some point along the writing road, we will be asked, if not forced, to let go of things we were originally in love with. This refers to specific ideas, sometimes […]
Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 14
Today’s excerpts are from Chapter 5: Realities, Odds, and Other Inconveniences I’m assuming you want to be great at this work. Not just to blend in, not just to sit in the workshop audience and take notes, but to truly become the next Gillian Flynn or John Green or Robert Jordan (real name James Oliver […]
Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 6
For the story to emerge… before it can work… certain principles and criteria apply. The fundamental truths about what causes a story to work aren’t optional or random, any more than sutures and staples are optional in a surgical procedure, or wings are less than compulsory in the design of an airplane. Successful genre-centric writers […]
Pearls, Nuggets and Excerpts… the Series, Part 5
On turning the corner from your writing instinct to an informed writing instinct. The difference is what will get you published… and what will attract readers and solid reviews. Day 5 Not all writers understand the nuances of that truth. The nuanced truth is, within any genre there are certain expectations in play: Genre-specific tropes […]