Making the Most of NaNoWriMo – NaNoWriMo Dailies
National Novel Writing Month starts in just two days, and a couple of times in the past week I’ve had people ask, “How can I make the most of NaNoWriMo?” More than 400,000 writers across America will set a goal to “write a novel in a month.” The novel is defined as 50,000 words in […]
What’s the Real Motive?
When you’re creating a well-rounded character, one of the great secrets behind understanding the character comes from understanding the character’s secret, often hidden motives. Understanding a character comes from understanding why they act the way that they do. Time and again, I find authors who sort of cheat themselves. As they create a character and […]
Recognizing Your Own Skill
When you write a story, you often have to ask yourself, “Is this tale good enough to send to editors or agents? Is it ready to publish? Could it be a bestseller?” Oddly enough, you as the author may be a terrible judge of your own work.This principle was brought up to me years ago […]
The Cure
I went to Midland, Texas over the weekend. On a taxi ride from the airport, the driver asked what I did for a living and commented, “I’ve always wanted to write a novel.” There was a genuine ache in his voice, as if he’d left something undone on his bucket list, and I thought, The […]
What if You Write a Great Book and the Publisher Doesn’t Buy It?
In the last year, I’ve had several writer friends and students send me samples of just fantastic novels that should have been snapped up by agents and publishers, but weren’t. In some instances, the author went to every major agent in the business, and none even wanted to see it. At times like that, it’s […]
Damaged Characters
One time I caught the season finale to a show that finds needy families and then rebuilds or replaces their homes. In this case, the father in the family seemed to be a great coach and a great person, but he was suffering from ALS, a disease that will take his life within a year […]
How to End a Story Well
Today, I want to talk about the ending of your novel or short story. Most new writers don’t have a problem ending their story. After all, if you’re working on a large novel and you’ve spent a year or two of your life working toward the ending, the chances are excellent that you’ve had a long […]
Mystic Art
For many authors, writing itself is a mystical act. They don’t understand what impulses drive them to write, they can’t figure out where to begin, and yet they feel great joy in the act of creation. I think of these people as mystics. Very often, they understand the act of writing so poorly that all […]
6 Tips to Increase Your Brain Power
Here are some ideas to help you increase your ability to write and to brainstorm. 1) Learn your own biorhythms. The right side of your brain, the creative side, wakens and falls asleep on a cycle that is separate from your conscious mind. One signal that it is awake is that during the night, when […]
To Plot, or Not to Plot
A lot of writers wonder whether they should plot a book or not. The truth is that the vast majority of bestselling authors do plot out their books, but that isn’t always the case. There are some writers who don’t plot. They’re called “discovery writers,” and they tend to ponder each scene, write it down, […]