Tips for Writers: Let’s Talk About Sex

As I’m sure you can tell from my reviews of certain genre romance, I don’t have an inherent problem with sex in a story. I’m not someone who thinks it’s too personal or private to read about in a fiction story, and in fact, when it is well told, I enjoy the culmination of love. […]

On Becoming Rich and Famous

Last week, while I was watching America’s Got Talent, I was struck by something one of the musicians said. In truth, it wasn’t so different from what many others have said, but this time, it got to me. He said he’d given up music entirely for a few years because he didn’t think he would […]

Tips for Writers: Inspiration on Endings from Jim Butcher

Tuesday night, I attended a Q&A and book signing with Jim Butcher. I went as a fan, not a writer, and most of the questions he answered were fan-based questions about characters and plots. He received a surprising number of questions from people who seemed to want spoilers. (Really? Don’t you want to enjoy making […]

Dialog for the Minimalist Writer (3)

As a minimalist writer myself, I have always loved dialog. To me, the spoken word easily and quickly conveys information that could otherwise take many long, boring paragraphs to relate. As a young reader, I used to pay particular attention to exchanges of dialog, because I found they moved the story quickly and effortlessly. When […]

Action for the Minimalist Writer (2)

Action sequences can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially for the minimalist writer, who is probably much more interested in how things turn out than how each punch lands. I myself spent years skimming through fight scenes and battle scenes, seeking out highlights that would tell me how my favorite characters fared in the conflict. When I […]

Description for the Minimalist Writer (1)

The minimalist writer is one with a tendency for brevity, who likes to get to the point and drive past it, pushing through to the exciting bits. I recently ran into just such a writer in one of my workshops, and she reminded me a little of me when I was a bit newer to […]

Characterization: The Circle of Intimacy

One way to think about interpersonal relatoinships is as a series of expanding circles. I’m in the middle, and inside my innermost circle are my closest confidantes — family and friends who are closer to knowing the real me than anyone else. In the next circles there are friends of gradually decreasing intimacy…the ones you […]

Tips for Writers: Beginnings

Starting July 5, I’m teaching a workshop on beginnings at Savvy Authors. I have a loose outline of topics I discuss, but the real advantage to the couse is that you will get a chance to post the first chapter or two (depending upon size) of your novels and receive specific feedback from me and […]

Tips for Writers in the Movie Age

We live in a pretty cool world, riding a wave of technological advancement that science fiction writers never accurately dreamed a century ago — though they tried. Do you know what I can do right now? I don’t even have to get up from my computer, but I can go to Netflix and with a […]

Tips For Writers: To Be…

All right, all right! I’ll talk about being, but only with the greatest reluctance. Being has bothered me as a topic ever since a long-ago but well-remembered critique I receieved in which a well-meaning peer underlined each and every being verb in a short story, including the ones appearing in dialog, suggesting I replace them […]