Christmas is around the corner. After Christmas is the time when I stock up on books on my three favorite subjects: storytelling, grammar, and punctuation. So, for your bookseller gift-card buying spree, may I recommend the following: Recommended Reading Punctuation...
Great beginnings are not written by accident. Authors give much thought before crafting that all-important first scene. Some spend hours on the first line. A novel doesn’t have to start with an Indiana Jones type opener—you know, Indie in the jungle facing dangers in...
Self-editing for plot holes might be the most difficult task an author undertakes. Why? Because in an author’s mind, the story is all laid out. The characters are in place. Their relationships are cemented, and the plot is solid in the author’s mind. In other words,...
Layering is what I call the process of blending the plot so that they do not seem dropped into the manuscript for convenience. There are a number of different portions of a story that can and should be layered: Props, character arcs, twists and turns, back story...
Dialogue comes naturally to some authors, but others struggle with trying to share realistic, pertinent, and dynamic conversations in their fiction. Today, let’s take a look at some practices to avoid and some that will assist in providing vibrant dialogue. If the...
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