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...

Preparing for NanoWrimo?

November is when many writers go into hyper speed and participate in Nanowrimo. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It doesn’t mean you have to write a novel in a month, but it’s a way of helping people set goals and encourage each other to write....

Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Writers?

I heard that this weekend at the Writers of the Flathead Conference in Kalispell, Montana. I remember David Morrell saying the same thing at Thrillerfest several years ago. It’s a mantra. It used to worry me when I heard it, but then I realized my day job is...

The State of Publishing and Quitting Writing

I’ve seen a number of posts lately with writers dismayed at the state of the industry and their careers. Which actually, I’ve been hearing ever since I got into this business. Not much new except for the details. It’s always been hard. I’ve...