Fiction

List your favorite novels, those you can count on one hand, and I’ll bet they have one major thing in common — an unforgettable hero. Regardless the genre, your characters must behave like real people in real-life situations who make mistakes, have regrets, and grow emotionally or spiritually throughout the story. Fail, and it shows. […]

Imagine a short story, then make it even shorter. That’s flash fiction. Short stories run anywhere between 1,500 and 10,000 words. Flash fiction stories run up to 1,500 words — but often much shorter. Usually up to 500 words. If you get down to 100 words or fewer, that’s micro fiction. Flash fiction contests tempt […]

How do you keep readers riveted to the end? Conflict is the engine of fiction. Readers love it. Dianna and I recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and agree on almost everything. That’s a gift in real life. In the pages of a novel? Boring. The more conflict, the more interesting your story. What is […]

You’ve always wanted to write a novel. But something’s stopped you. Maybe you’ve tried before, only to get a few, or several, pages in and lose steam because: Your story idea didn’t hold up You couldn’t overcome procrastination You feared your writing wasn’t good enough You ran out of ideas and had no clue what […]

Too many novelists create a villain who does bad things because he’s the bad guy. He might as well appear in a melodrama, wearing a black hat and a cape while twirling his handlebar mustache. But a melodramatic villain is a cliché by definition — predictable, unrealistic, and there just for fun. Hissing at the […]