Readers care about story details and they care about characters. Both last night and this afternoon I had conversations with readers upset about the way authors had portrayed a character. The first conversation was with a grocery clerk, a stranger to me, and the second was with a family member. Both mentioned that a character […]

read Readers Notice and They Care »

This is the first article in a series exploring the elements of story structure. Part 1 looks beyond the topics of three-act and mythic structure to a review of the story goal (concern of the protagonist), the story question (concern of the reader), and the protagonist’s inner need.

read Story Goal, Story Question, and the Protagonist’s Inner Need (Story Structure Part 1) »

Celebrating because my web host finally got the blog back up and running! My apologies to those who couldn’t access the blog for the past few days. Apparently there was trouble migrating the domain to a new server, but there should be no more problems with access now. Enjoy the blog!

read The Blog is Back »

You’ll find a lot of articles at this blog that encourage the new writer. Writers come to writing for many reasons, and not all will have a background in writing, fiction, or literature. And while I will forever encourage writers to begin writing at any time and for whatever reason, I do want to further […]

read Get Skilled »

I challenge you–writer or editor–to strengthen one of your writing skills this next year.

read The Calendar Year Changes Again »

English is a forgiving and accommodating language.  And that means that writers have a whole lot of leeway when it comes to deciding how to word phrases and structure sentences. A sentence can consist of a single independent clause (simple sentence), multiple independent clauses (compound sentence), or at least one dependent clause and at least […]

read Word Choice, Word Order, and Word Placement Can Matter »

Don’t bother trying to polish a first or second draft. Because of the changes you’ll make to subsequent drafts, a polish before its time is a waste of time.

read Hold Off on Polishing »

Fact-checking is critical so that readers trust what you tell them and so they aren’t pulled out of your stories by inaccurate details. Fact-check your fiction.

read When the Familiar is Too Familiar »

Punctuating interrupted dialogue is a confusing topic for both writers and editors, but there is a definitive answer to the question, “how do you punctuate interrupted dialogue?” Use dashes.

read When a Comma Isn’t Enough »

Gerunds look like verbs but act like nouns. Explore the variety of uses for gerunds.

read Talk About Gerunds »