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.
When I began training in the martial arts, one of the first things I had to learn and accept was that I had to trust my teacher. I didn’t know what was expected of me, and I certainly didn’t believe that I could do any of it. But my teacher thought I could learn…
When I first started writing about Lucinda, the female protagonist of The Wanderer series, I gave her a love interest, Lord Stephen, and then I gave him a personal bodyguard named Simon. Originally I thought I would give Simon a love interest of his own in one of the books of the series, and I…
I’ve noticed that writers and editors run out of things to talk about so they invent ridiculous rules that don’t exist outside their own heads, or they apply them like a toddler with a hammer. “Don’t use adverbs!” they say. You know, adverbs can be terrific. Writing is never about 1 + 1 = 2….
Lately people have been asking me for advice, and I have not once but twice in a row now made the rookie mistake of actually giving it. I know that most people want to hear, “you go grrrrl!” even when they swear they’re seeking my best, most realistic counsel. But I didn’t say, “you go grrrl!”…
I’m usually a pretty patient reader, willing to give a writer the benefit of the doubt, but occasionally I come across a writer whose verbal mannerisms take me out of the story repeatedly, and then I stop being so patient. Recently I picked up a novel by a much-loved author (loved by other people; I hadn’t…
That’s my new tagline for Act 3. (Waaay back in Act 1, I would have snorted tea up my nose if someone had suggested that I needed a tagline. What can I say? Times change.) I love writing books, but I also love helping other writers shape their book ideas and bring them…