Showing and Telling: Why “Show Don’t Tell” Is Bad Advice
“Show don’t tell” is incomplete advice. Novels need both. Here’s when to show, when to tell, and how to stop undermining your own scenes.
The nuts and bolts of good writing. Character, plot, dialogue, structure, voice, and the techniques that turn a draft into something worth reading. Craft advice from a writer with more than 100 books behind him.
“Show don’t tell” is incomplete advice. Novels need both. Here’s when to show, when to tell, and how to stop undermining your own scenes.
Toxic people don’t just ruin your mood. They ruin your writing. Here’s how to identify them, deal with them, and protect your creative space.
A practical guide to plot devices that strengthen fiction and the common ones that destroy reader trust. With diagnostic tests for your own manuscript.
Tone isn’t what you write. It’s how the reader feels while reading it. Here’s how tone works in fiction and ghostwriting, and how to get it right.
A college professor told me I’d never be a good writer. I believed him for decades. Then I wrote over 100 books. The voice didn’t stop.
A freelance ghostwriter explains how catastrophizing affects his writing and business, and the strategies that actually work to manage it.
Weak verb plus adverb is a sign the writer ducked a decision. How to choose verbs that carry their own weight in fiction.
A fiction writer and book coach on using holidays, family gatherings, and seasonal settings to create tension, reveal character, and drive plot in your stories.
A 20-year operations director and 54-book ghostwriter on what leaders actually get wrong about mistakes, and what the good ones do differently.
A fiction writer and book coach on the fear of judgment that keeps writers from submitting, from joining critique groups, and from finishing their work.
How to choose the right POV for your novel and maintain it for 80,000 words. Real examples from a writing coach with 113+ published books.
How to write with imposter syndrome and ADHD. Real strategies from a writer who has published 113+ books using systems built around how his brain actually works
Thanksgiving gives writers everything: history, family conflict, food, gratitude, and guilt. Books, movies, and craft lessons from the ultimate pressure cooker.
Every writer makes mistakes. These are the ones that actually derail projects — from not writing to not fact-checking to treating a first draft as a final draft.
I write 10,000 words a day. Here is the system that makes it possible, from goal setting and distraction elimination to dictation and timed writing blocks.
Allegory works when the surface story is strong enough to stand alone. How to build layered meaning into fiction that readers discover rather than endure.
These aren’t books I found on a “best of” list. They’re the books on my office wall that I pull down while writing novels and ghostwriting client projects
Show versus tell is the most repeated writing advice and the least understood. What it means, when to use each, and the mistakes that undermine both.
A good metaphor compresses meaning. A bad one stops the reader cold. How to write metaphors that strengthen prose and avoid the five most common failures.
Admiral Jessica Lang is nearly 200,000 years old. Peacekeeper is a military sci-fi novel with no and space battles unfold over weeks. Currently in final draft.
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