Setting Writing Goals to Finish Your Book
For over thirty years now, I’ve been setting writing goals. As a youngster, they were often unrealistic, of course. “I’m going to write forty pages per day for two weeks, and I’ll have a novel done!” Well, I’ve written up to 70 pages in a day, and they were even publishable, but that was at […]
Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 12: Audience Analysis Pays Off Big
My first fantasy novel took off in a way that I had hoped, and I suddenly found myself with a number of opportunities. First, I was working hard on my second Runelords novel, and that was my priority, but with the success of Starcraft’s Brood War (which is still played today in the final round […]
Finding Courage
A good friend of mine wrote five novels before he got the courage to submit one to a publisher. (It was a great book, and it became a bestseller!) A young author I met on a panel once was shaking when she sat down. I asked if she was all right, and she said, “I’m afraid […]
Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 11: Taking the Plunge
From the time that I was a teen, I’d wanted to write a fantasy series. In fact, my first two attempts at fiction writing were both fantasy novels, but as I got into college I began writing other things—literary fiction, poetry, science fiction, non-fiction. Ten years after winning the grand prize in the Writers of […]
Dream Sequences
Most editors will warn you against writing too many dream sequences. The problems in writing about dreams are multitudinous. Very often, a new author will write an opening to a story and feel that it is dull, so he or she will spice it up by putting in an action scene—and then have the character […]
Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 10: Agents, Editors, and Writers
Most new writers dream of getting a high-powered agent and editor, and as a new author I was no different. As an older writer, I’m a bit more skeptical. I got my first agent fairly easily. After winning the Writers of the Future Contest and having the award ceremony atop the World Trade Center in […]
A Screenwriter Wins at Prose Fiction Writing
I wrote my million words of crap blissfully unaware of the “rules.” [My novella] was the first piece of writing I actually submitted to a traditional SFF market. That quarter I had an honorable mention. I subscribed to Dave’s newsletter in May 2010 when it was still called Daily Kicks. Until then, I had written […]
Telescoping
One book that I frequently recommend for writers is Orson Scott Card’s Characters and Viewpoint. I do it for a number of reasons. First, Scott looks at such issues as whether to write a novel in first person, second, or third; he also look at past, present, and future tense, and comes to the conclusion […]
Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 9: Writing Fun
Many authors, when they “get serious” about writing, discover that their attitude will suck all of the fun out of their work, and it shows in their prose. A novelist who isn’t having fun will tend to write beautifully and powerfully, but may go an entire novel without cracking a joke, without displaying a sense […]
Eliminating On-The-Nose Dialogue
Today’s writing tip comes from Alex Bloom, the founder of Script Reader Pro, a screenplay consultancy and blog based in Los Angeles dedicated to helping aspiring and working screenwriters. Whether or not you are a screenwriter, Alex’s writing tip applies to narrative writing too. Eliminating On-The-Nose Dialogue Have you ever received script coverage back on a […]