Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

Among hundreds of fiction writing techniques, here is my favorite, and it involves weeping.  Also, a review of a critical skill for us: controlling the point of view.

Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes...

Thomas Cullen writes, "the brains of skilled writers are wired over many years to mimic the rhythms, structures, patterns and prose of their favorite authors.”   We can learn lovely rhythms by reading famous fiction passages. And: how to overcome the possible grind of writing the middle of the novel.

Do we have what it takes to write a novel?  Here are six questions we can ask ourselves that'll shed light on the issue.  Also, when should a writer make an exception to a tried-and-true rule of writing?

Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more. Each ep...

Here are ten smaller techniques that'll improve our story, each maybe not big enough for a full segment but worthwhile to help make our story gripping and our sentences shine.  Also, here are thoughts about our story's ending; isn't HEA (happily-ever-after) a formula and cliche?  And: how to show rather than tell about the weather.

Here is a 20-episode master class on ...