Defining Yourself
I’m going to talk a bit about audience analysis. It’s always good before you begin to write to really understand who your audience is and what they’re needs are so that you can better meet those needs. But it’s also important to understand who you are as an author, and what it is that you […]
The Loneliness Problem
I often look for similarities in great stories to see what works. One “conflict” that I see very often is that powerful stories resolve “the loneliness problem.” Normally, we are never told that our protagonist is lonely, but it’s there in the background: Scrooge is a miserly old man in a musty house. Harry Potter […]
Why Write Every Day?
It’s hard starting a story cold, as many of you have found when you try to write a novel. You know that you want to write, but sometimes it just won’t come. So you sit at your computer and do nothing. I think I understand why this is, but let me first illustrate the problem: […]
Investing In You
My dream of writing came to life when I was in my teens. I had read Lord of the Rings two or three times in rapid succession and then began reading any other fantasy I could find, along with a good deal of science fiction—stories that I call “Wonder literature.” I lived a long way […]
Ending Your Novel
How To Write book series
Busting Your Editor’s Chops
Writers love to gossip about editors, agents, and publishers. Most of the time, that gossip is pretty harmless, but sometimes it can come back to bite you. I was reminded of this over the past week when I read a Facebook post by a young woman who had had a story rejected for an anthology. […]
Don’t Get Too Excited
Every year when the Hugo and Nebula Awards are announced, I see a pattern: A young writing student of mine (or three) will get nominated for a major award, then go completely off the rails. When I say that they “go off the rails,” I mean that one of several things happen: First off, they […]
The One Great Story
What stories affect you profoundly? Which ones are your favorites? If you had to make a list of the three most influential of stories, could you? About 15 years ago, I heard a wise publisher say that, and I’ll paraphrase, “there is only one great story. It’s the story of a young person who loses […]
Taking a Look at the Big Picture
This past week, I had to perform an unusual exercise. I have a couple of studios who are looking at doing a television series based on my Runelords fantasy series. (Don’t get too excited, we’re just exploring the idea at this point.) But in talking to them, we had to look at a 9-book series […]
Read and Write Your Own Contracts
Very often I meet writers who can’t discuss even the most basic points of their publishing contracts. They’re afraid to even read them. They’ll make the excuse, “Oh, I had my agent (or attorney) handle the contract.”