Appealing to the Senses
Most writers don’t know how to write prose that entangles a reader’s imagination. Envision a reader picking up your novel. As she begins to read, she hopes to be transported into a story, one that is rich and detailed, one that takes her away from her own place and time. Now, as she reads, she […]
The Most Important Book You’ll Ever Write
“A little effort applied consistently will lead to massive outcomes eventually.”—Dr. Richard Whitehead Yesterday I was listening to the pre-game show for the Superbowl, and some commentators were discussing what it is like to be in “the most important game of your life.” They talked about how the player’s nerves were affected and how difficult […]
Do You Need a Publicist?
First of all, publicists can help you, their services can cross a broad spectrum.
For example, let’s say that you want to get an article about your book placed in People Magazine or a popular airline magazine. Years ago, there was a publicist who specialized in just that—writing articles about authors and their books and getting them published in magazines.
Another publicist I worked with would set up tours where authors would go on television news shows and try to get author interviews set up there.
A third specialized in creating huge Twitter and Facebook followings.
A fourth created press releases so that the author could get articles published in the Entertainment sections of newspapers.
A fifth was an image consultant and trained authors in public speaking, and would then focus on getting them gigs speaking at author events.
Writing Multiple Viewpoints
When you’re writing a novel, you will find that if you stick to only one point of view, it can be rather stifling. The problem becomes that your protagonist must always be doing something interesting—fighting the good fight, running from villains, solving crimes, falling in and out of love, and so on. Not only does […]
Writing Wretched Dialogue
Recently I read a couple of stories where it felt as if the author was struggling to come up with bad dialog. So I thought I should give a few tips on how to do it properly. The easiest way to write wretched dialog is to use dialog for the wrong reasons. In other words, […]
How to Hold Yourself Accountable to Writing
How to Hold Yourself Accountable to Writing I’ve belonged to a couple of writing groups where the writers seemed to be on fire. We typically met once a week. Everyone in the group agreed to do three things: we’d write a certain amount per week, and we’d critique each other’s work. If a writer was […]
Mapping Your Career Path
A proven writer is an author that publishers trust to deliver a story of high quality. As a new writer, you’re struggling to gain the skills in narrative, dialog, and description so that you can deliver powerful stories to readers. If a proven author turns a manuscript in to a publisher, the publisher doesn’t have to guess whether it’s publishable, they know it will be.
How to End a Story Well
When you boil a story down to its fundamentals, an ending is nothing more than a series of conflict resolutions. You might have some interesting plot twists, discoveries, and reversals, and you can affect any kind of tone you want, from light hearted banter to high seriousness, but the truth is that as an audience we are very curious to see how your story turns out.
You’re an Editor
I found out on Wednesday that an anthology that I’d edited—L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 35—had won the Critters Readers’ Poll for Best Anthology of the Year. That’s delightful. This readers’ poll has thousands of fans who vote for the awards, and one of our authors in the book, Wulf Moon, […]
Heroes and Anti-Heroes
When you’re writing a novel, you may create a protagonist who is “heroic,” or one who is an “anti-hero.” But do you know the difference between the two? A heroic character is typically likeable. That means that he is often in pain—perhaps both physically and emotionally scarred. He also cares deeply about others, enough that […]