literary nonsense
One of my email subscribers recently asked me how they could critically read another writer in order to help them improve their writing, in other words, how they could learn to read like a writer. Here’s my response: #1 Re-read If you get halfway into a chapter and think, Wow this chapter is super creepy–I … read more
Hear me out on this one. There’s a lot of advice out there (I’ve given it myself) about being okay with writing a shitty first draft, and I basically agree with the premise. Too many new writers get paralyzed with the expectation that they should be able to sit down and barf out a flawless … read more
Whether you’re building a fantasy world from scratch, or mentally designing the suburban house your very realistic story will take place in, at a certain point in your writing process you’ll need to plan out your story world. Here are a few world-building research methods to get you started: Ask Questions Ask anything and everything … read more
Hello fiction writers! Today I’m covering a question I often get from my email subscribers and clients: How do you properly format a fiction manuscript for submission? With small press publishers, literary magazine editors, and literary agents under an increasing amount of stress, formatting your manuscript correctly is more important than ever. As a professional … read more
While a great editor can bring your fiction to its highest level and teach you priceless writing skills in the process, other editors can leave you in worse shape than you started—frustrated, confused, and out a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. I don’t want that to happen to you, writers! In this post, … read more
In this post, I’ll show you how to create a story-level character arc using the DCAST method. Sound good? Super. Let’s get started. Intro: Character arcs defined So… what is a character arc? A character arc is the transformation, growth, or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. Character arcs are … read more
Welcome, fiction writers! In this post, we’ll be looking at how to choose the right point of view for your story. Point of View: An Introduction Simply stated, point of view is the vantage point from which a story is told. But point of view is much more complicated than that. It encompasses everything from … read more
New to point of view? Get an introduction to the five basic points of view. What is multiple point of view? In multiple point of view, we get the perspectives of multiple characters within a single story. You have three options with multiple point of view: Multiple first person (The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver) … read more
I was inspired to write this post after getting a question from one of my email subscribers: “What’s your opinion on the whole ‘show don’t tell’ advice? Do you have any tips for when to show and when to tell?” Here’s my response: I honestly think that “show don’t tell” is one of the most … read more
I got a great question from one of my email subscribers last week who wanted to know how to identify weak spots and improve their writing. One of the things that comes with time and experience is finding the language to identify, discuss, and address the feeling that something isn’t quite right or that a … read more