Helping Writers Become Authors

So long as you've exhausted your avenues of research, and so long as you've got a little chutzpah on your side, you can fake what you don't know, and readers will never notice the glue between the cracks.

The specifics of the mysteries in every story will differ according to each story's demands, but following are some general guidelines on what information an author can and can't safely withhold.

In order to decide whether you should edit as you go or not, you need to evaluate your writing methods and decide whether or not perfectionism is likely to slow you down to the point where that first draft will never get written

Using pronouns to replace character names, whenever possible, creates a seamless flow of narrative that puts the focus on the what and how of your scene once you've established the who.

For every vivid minor character with whom you surround your protagonist, you'll be able to give readers one more reason not to put your story down.

Even perfectly crafted books can't always guarantee an emotional reaction from readers. So how do you go about infusing this all-important essence into your fiction?

Readers want to understand a character by seeing what he does. However, often, it's what a character wants to do that matters even more.

All stories begin with a premise. But, often, our original conceptions are hazy and unformed.

If you feel that a thesaurus would benefit your writing, why not use it? In my case, the benefits far outweigh any drawbacks, and my thesaurus remains a valuable tool in my writing toolbox.

When you strip fiction down to its essentials, the authors viewpoint is all there is. He may mask it artfully in the colorful garb of diverse characters and impartial dialogue, but if he's not willing to share with his readers his own passionate worldview, he's not giving them anything more than fluff.

If we flip the coin on its head, and look at the other side, we discover some mighty interesting benefits to this seeming defeatism, including the marvelous commiserative comfort of knowing that even the likes of Hemingway and Goldman struggled with getting a story to work.

You can come up with the most entertaining, marvelous character imaginable, but unless you also give him a strong and convincing character arc, his story will lack depth and power.

The inciting event is the moment your character's world is forever changed. It knocks over the first domino in the line of dominoes that forms your plot.

Returning to the caveman technology of pen and paper can have a surprisingly freeing effect on our muses.

The difference between specific fiction and general fiction is the difference between stories that come to life and stories that lie dead on the page.

It's important to discover the atmosphere that best encourages your creativity and foster that atmosphere as much as possible.

We're all striving to be the best writers we can be. But the only way to be a better writer is to be a better person.

Chances are good that our stories will never quite live up to our expectations, but the challenge of bridging the chasm between idealized concept and finished product is one of the joys of the craft.

If we want our characters and plots to hit the reader to the fullest effect, we have to put our sentences on a strict exercise regime that will let them emerge buff and trim and strong enough to the bear the weight of our stories.

Because stereotypes are widely recognized, they provide us common ground with the reader. From that starting place, we then have the option of using the reader's expectations to our advantage in any number of ways.