Mystery Writer’s Handbook
Readers come to mystery for justice, not merely the puzzle. In a world that feels unjust, a mystery delivers a problem solved through skill and persistence and
Category: Writing (Page 16)
WritingTime Travel Handbook
The more you explain time travel, the weaker the story gets. The strongest time-travel fiction normalizes its mechanism and spends its attention on the human
WritingNovel Handbook
Novels break in ways short stories never do. The forgiving short form lets you get away with murder. Eighty thousand words exposes everything: consistency, a
WritingCharacter Writer’s Handbook
Surface detail does not make a character live; psychological truth does. A reader's mirror neurons fire only when a character behaves like a real human, and
WritingSubstack for Writers Handbook
Substack works on a different model, so a different strategy wins. You own your subscriber list, which makes it an owned asset instead of rented attention
Behind the BookBehind the Book: Collision with Andromeda
Collision with Andromeda sat unfinished for eight years. Here is the story behind a novel told partly from the point of view of a galaxy, and the lonely mind at its heart.
GhostwritingSigns You Need a Ghostwriter (Even If You Won’t Admit It)
Most people who need a ghostwriter never decide they do. Here are the real signs the book in your head needs another pair of hands to get written.
Behind the BookBehind the Book: Buttercup
I spent almost twenty years unable to write about my marriage to Claudia. The book only worked once I stopped telling it and let Buttercup, our cat, tell it instead.
WritingCell Phones vs. The Real World
We have become hypnotized by small glowing screens, tuning out driving, conversation, and the world. Here is what it costs and how to put the phone down.
Book MarketingInternet Trolls: How to Recognize and Handle Them
Internet trolls exist to provoke and disrupt, not communicate. Here is what attracts them, how they operate, and why you cannot win by engaging.
WritingIntrovert or Extrovert: How a Camera Changed My Life
I spent most of my life as a deep introvert, and grief pushed me deeper. What pulled me back out was a camera. Here is the story, and what it taught me.
WritingFailure Is Success: What a Lifetime of Failing Taught Me
I have failed constantly, and learned that failure is success. The failure is never the problem; what you do with it is. Here is what a lifetime of failing taught me.