Helping Writers Become Authors

If you can strengthen the narrative of your story by showing a logical progression of cause and effect, you'll end up with leaner prose, more honest character reactions, and more involved readers.

Studying stories of the type you want to write is legitimately important research, and don't let anyone tell you differently.

Recognizing, and even appreciating, the fact that writing will always be difficult, frees us from the doubt, and even guilt, of feeling we'll never be good enough - because the truth is we won't.

No story is perfect; no author is perfect. This is a sad fact that every writer has to face sooner or later.

Whenever you see the word "there" used as a pronoun, you can be sure it's being used as a crutch to hold up a weak and passive sentence.

When we focus on the goals that are slightly more achievable, we're not only more likely to pull them off, but we'll also feel much better about ourselves come next year.

Weather, like most description, is best delivered in small doses, interspersed with the action and dialogue, and offered only when important.

Keep your eyes open for places where you can effortlessly strengthen your scene by using verbs that show instead of tell.

It takes time and breathing space for us to figure out which ideas are worth committing to for the long haul.

It's vital that each author discover for himself the methods that work best for him.

Avoiding description is impossible, and attempting to avoid it does nothing but tie an author's hand.

Figure out what makes this story more worth writing than any other story, and let that reason empower you in every subsequent word you write.

Pleasing both our present and future readers can seem like an impossible task. But with a little bit of foresight and practicality, we can sidestep the most egregious pitfalls.

One of the easiest ways to add depth to a story is to introduce one of the most marvelous techniques known to writers: juxtaposition.

A character who's moving - even if he's just walking across the street - gives the reader the sense that the story is moving forward along with him.

When we write from a character's POV, we must become that character - and that means that if we fail to love him, we will fail to understand him and, as a result, end up looking down our noses and sermonizing.

It's easy enough to make our characters talk to each other and even relatively easy enough to make what they say interesting to the reader. But if interesting is the only burden our dialogue is carrying, it's not doing its share.

Some of the worst advice ranges from downright discouragement to bits that perhaps are specific only to some of us.

Because writing is an art form that can largely be learned, and because it is a craft that can always be perfected, most writers learn early on to study to show themselves approved.

It's much too easy for us - no matter where we are on the writing ladder - to feel that what we're writing isn't important enough to qualify us for a full-fledged Writer Card.