National Book Lovers Day: August 9th
Every year on August 9th, book lovers celebrate the written word. Here's why this day matters, ten must-read books, and a nod to the writers behind the scenes.
Tag: Writing Craft (Page 54)
Character DevelopmentWhat Bad Movies Teach Writers About Storytelling
Watching a story break teaches craft faster than watching one succeed. A sagging second act explains pacing; a wrecked fan-favorite explains consistency; spectacle with no plot explains the gap between flash and story. Here is what bad movies teach writers,…
Character DevelopmentToxic People and the Creative Life: How to Protect Your Work
The real enemy of creative work is not a dry spell; it is the toxic people who drift into your life and fog everything with negativity until the work stalls. I have dealt with them as a writer, a photographer,…
Creative Writing20 Noir and Hardboiled Writing Exercises with Craft Mechanics
20 exercises in moral compromise, institutional rot, economic desperation, and protagonists stuck in worlds where nobody wins clean.
Overcoming Writing ResistanceHow to Overcome Writer’s Block: 10 Methods That Work
Writer's block is not staring at a blank page; that is just starting. The real thing is wanting to write and being unable to keep anything you produce, drafting and deleting in circles. Here is what block actually is, why…
Book MarketingWriting Quality Control: From Draft to Publishable
Editing is one step. Quality control is the entire system around it, the methodical work that turns a rough draft into something worth publishing. A first draft is meant to be messy; the difference between an author and a drawer…
Book ProposalWhat Do Families Get Wrong About Memoir Ghostwriting?
Families talk themselves out of memoirs with beliefs that don't hold up: the subject isn't famous enough, memory has gaps, it's too late, the book has to be published. Here's what's true instead, and the one belief that is right.
GhostwritingActive Voice in Fiction and Ghostwriting: Why It Matters
Active voice is not a grammar rule to obey; it is a pacing and clarity tool. Jessica drew her weapon moves; the weapon was drawn by Jessica sits there. Stretched across a novel, that small difference decides whether your prose…
DialogueLearn the Rules of Punctuation. Stop Guessing
Learn punctuation the way you learned to drive: before you are behind the wheel, not after the crash. A grammar checker is not a substitute for actually knowing the rules, and an editor should not be your safety net. I…
Story StructurePlot Devices: Those That Work and Those That Wreck the Story
Every story runs on plot devices, objects, coincidences, prophecies, twists, so the question is never whether to use them but whether yours are earning their keep or quietly cheating the reader. After 54+ books, here are the devices that strengthen…
Authority Through AuthorshipWhat Actually Makes a Novel Find Its Audience
Coaching clients almost all open with the same question: how do I get more readers? They want a marketing secret, a better category, more social posts. The real answer is duller and more useful: make the book so good at…
Vocabulary & Word ChoiceTone in Writing: What It Does and How to Control It
Tone is not what you write; it is how the reader feels while reading it. Two writers can report the identical event and leave readers in completely different moods, one amused, one unsettled, with no change to the facts. After…