Fiction

If your writing bores you, it’ll put your reader to sleep.  And unfortunately, your first reader will be an agent or an editor.  Your job is to make every word count—the only way to keep your reader riveted until the end, which is no small… [Continue reading below]

You’ve got a great story idea you’re confident can become a page turner.  This is the one that won’t leave you alone. Every time you think or speak of it, you embellish it. Now what?  Plan your story like you’d plan a vacation — you… [Continue reading below]

A book like A Game of Thrones, a movie like Star Wars, or even a video game like Final Fantasy can make it appear their creators have effortlessly built a fantasy world out of nothing. In fact, these worlds may feel as real as the… [Continue reading below]

Full disclosure: I’m not a huge fan of Epilogues. That’s not to say they’re all bad. In fact, I’ve ended several of my novels with Epilogues. Done right, they can be a powerful way to leave your reader satisfied. But beware! Approach your Epilogue wrong… [Continue reading below]

Page-turning novels have plausible, believable, memorable characters.  Consider these classics: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway The Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur C. Doyle To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Anne of Green Gables… [Continue reading below]