The Writing Craft

Whether you’re a beginner or have been at it for decades, writing well is flat hard work. I’ve written and published nearly 200 books, including 21 New York Times bestsellers, and I still take daily steps to improve my writing. One doesn’t arrive at good… [Continue reading below]

Your goal, whether writing fiction or nonfiction, should be to paint word pictures vivid enough to engage the theater of your reader’s mind. Readers love to be educated and entertained, but they remember forever when they’re emotionally moved. So deciding which you’ll employ of the… [Continue reading below]

You well know the frustration. It comes time to write, and you can’t produce a single word. Maybe you’ve tried for weeks, months, or even years. But still nothing comes. You’re suffering the dreaded Writer’s Block while your writing dream, your story, and the message… [Continue reading below]

As a reader, I’ve never felt a good book was too long, even more than a thousand pages. And I’ve never found a bad book short enough. One of the most common questions writers ask me: “How long should my manuscript be?” Well, different publishers… [Continue reading below]

Regardless how many books I’ve written or sold, if I’m not still educating myself about writing, I’m stagnating. My late mother taught me the value of life-long learning. Not only was she a piano teacher into her eighties, but she was also a piano student. … [Continue reading below]