How a Book Is Born, Part 12
In which I decide to kill off a character. And then rescind the decision.
In which I decide to kill off a character. And then rescind the decision.
I read my share of blogs, especially personal finance and entrepreneurship blogs, mostly for the entertainment value. You’d think advice such as “live on less than you earn” and tips for how to get ahead and strategies for working smarter, not harder would be fairly straightforward. But they’re not. All of these things depend on…
The art of adding conflict to fiction and motivating your characters has been summed up thusly: “Put your character up a tree and throw rocks at him.” (Or her. Or them. Obviously.) Upping the stakes for your main character adds dramatic tension to your plot, whether you’re writing a sweet contemporary romance or a…
When I decided a few years ago to seriously pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a novelist, I knew it would take a lot of time and effort and a certain amount of sacrifice. Those were all acceptable choices to me, considering what I hoped to gain at the end of it. What I didn’t…
Every single stage of my writing career has been a pain in the ass. I think the last time my love of writing was pure and unadulterated with any concept of “why does this have to be so hard?” was when I was five and the lightbulb went off in my head and suddenly I…
In today’s inbox: “I’m an unpublished author getting ready to submit my book. I’m writing a book in a genre I’m not sure how to define. Can you give me some advice on agents or publishers to submit it to?” This is a common question that I get asked many times each week…
Over the Labor Day weekend, Jess and I stayed at a hotel where we were given a handicapped-accessible room. We hadn’t requested one and didn’t need it, and the hotel did not appear full, so why we got it when someone else may have needed it is a question for another day. Today’s question has…