On Writing and the Business of Writing– some thoughts

Writing I recently read an essay about exposing MFA students too much to the business of publishing and being a writer. The theory put forth was that too much of that could stifle a student’s creativity. It was titled On Writing and the Business of Writing, so...
The Writer’s Little Black Book Published Today

The Writer’s Little Black Book Published Today

In celebration of the publication today of The Writer’s Little Black Book, the first book in the series, Life’s Little Black Book is only .99 on Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited. The Writer’s book contains over 100 mistakes writers tend to make and how to fix them, in...

Write It Forward: from writer to successful author

The publishing business makes little logical sense. That’s because it’s part of the “entertainment business.” The first word, entertainment refers to emotion, while business refers to logic. Trying to explain how publishing works to someone...
Conflict is the fuel of Story

Conflict is the fuel of Story

While we usually want to avoid conflict in real life, in fiction, it is what drives the characters and story forward toward the climactic scene. When I do workshops, the first thing we do is get the author to say the core idea of his/her book in one sentence. That can...

The Idea is the seed of your novel

I’m in the process of updating all my slideshows on writing the novel and got the first four done: Idea, Conflict, Plot and Point of View. More are in the pipeline. These are free, downloadable slideshows. Since they’re standing on their own without me...