David Farland: Story Doctor Writing Tips

Whenever you express an idea, you can look at the poetry of your language, your use of diction, your originality, and compare it to other

Wonder literature may be the most popular literature in the world. You probably don’t know that, because the truth is that the evidence to support

Years ago I watched a panel on literary criticism. Just as the panel was concluding, one . . . fellow stopped the panel and said,

Have you ever found that you’re reading a book and suddenly your eyes glaze over? Have you asked yourself what is wrong? Very often, if

Have you ever heard Churchill’s saying, “Perfection is the enemy to progress”? As a writer, I suspect that you know what I mean. Sometimes I

Stories should move forward, not backward. This might seem like a pretty basic idea, but sometimes a writer feels “stalled” on a novel. For example,

Twenty years ago, I was writing little Star Wars books for Scholastic when my editor, David Levithan, asked if I would be willing to look

  It’s always good before you begin to write to really understand who your audience is and what their needs are, so that you can

Three weeks ago I was talking to a movie producer in Hollywood that is trying to set up a couple of movie and television deals

One of my Facebook friends today put up a message that said, “Fewer people would take up writing if they knew just how hard it

People are attracted to motion, particularly physical motion. But when describing a setting, some things are pretty resistant to moving. Houses, mountains, trees, and so