How to Write Believable Characters
The most important part of any story is the characters. Indeed, the characters are the story. If you don’t have believable characters, then you don’t have a story – no matter how good…
Writer’s Art Tools & Techniques Posts
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Story Pacing – Urgency – Hooking Readers
The First Fifty – Crucial – Pages of Your Book The first fifty pages of your book are crucial for setting the hook in your readers. Something has to happen. Something exciting, or…
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What is the Best Point of View to Use in Fiction?
Benefits and Drawbacks of Each POV As a beginning writer who chose to write my first book in first-person narrative, I discovered the drawbacks of such an approach the hard way. Halfway through…
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World Building – Information Dumps in Your Story
Are You Overwhelming Your Readers? Have you ever run across a prologue like this: (usually in sci-fi books) Captain Briggs took the helm and began shouting orders. “Ensign, optimize the traspositional filtration valves…
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Sentence Fragments – Stylistic Choice?
Should I use sentence fragments in my novel? Is it bad writing or style? Sentence fragments. Who cares? You? Me? Anyone? Depends. Writing nonfiction? Probably wouldn’t. Work, that is. Writing fiction? Could be….
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Rewriting and Revising Before You Edit
How Many Manuscript Drafts Should You Go Through? When working on a book of any kind, if you haven’t gone through a minimum of three drafts, you probably don’t have a finished product….
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How to Write Your Book
What’s the Best Way to Write a Book? There are as many answers to that questions as there are authors. And while no answer is inherently better than another, a few examples should…
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Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part 3
Engage Your Characters in Their Setting When you’re characters interact through dialogue, make them interact as well with their surroundings. There should be a continual interplay of character and setting. Examine your dialogue…
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Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part 2
The Three S’s – Scene, Setting, and Senses Stories don’t occur in a bubble. They have to be set in a real and believable place. And what makes a scene or setting, is…
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Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part 1
You’ve Written “The End” – But Is Your Book Ready? Okay, so you’ve finally reached the magic words “The End”. But is it really? Are you done? Have you really finished your book?…
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How to Write a Song – Part 4
Harmony THEORY-PRACTICE: The history of music is replete with songwriter/performers who – technically speaking – didn’t know squat about music. But through creative genius and a good ear, they were able to create…
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How to Write a Song – Part 3
IMAGERY IN SONG WRITING – Songwriters use flowery or descriptive imagery in place of the actual things they describe. Think Bob Seger in “Like a Rock”, Or Poison’s “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”,…
