A lot of what I write here is projection. That is to say, a lot of my advice are things I need to remind myself. And one thing I constantly ...

“And so,” he said, “in the end, what must we determine? Is it the intellect of a genius that we revere? If it were their artistry, the beaut...

Most writers don't think of ourselves as actors, but we are a little bit. We have to imagine what our characters are feeling and then po...

It is objectively difficult to create when it feels like the world, including the networks and structures we take for granted, is crumbling ...

They say you have to murder your darlings, and you think, sure, I get that—a phrase here, a sentence there... But what if the feedback is th...

One of the hardest but most important aspects of editing your own work is reading it with fresh eyes. You can (and should!) do this with bet...

With the US's ongoing slide into a literal banana republic,* it is very difficult for me to think about writing and writing tips. I'...

If you're serious about writing, then you need to be serious about getting feedback. You might ask friends to read your work, swap draft...

I've had to take an extra break here due to sickness (and what a time to take a break!), but I read something a few days ago that's...

If you're going to write sci-fi or fantasy, then you need to know about abeyance. Abeyance in fiction  is the reader's willingness t...

The year was 1999. My generation hadn't had a new Star Wars movie in sixteen years. We believed the series was done. Over. The trilogy h...

I have a confession. Historically, I have been very bad at description. I didn't like it. I skimmed it when I read it (do you know how m...

There are lots of great tips out there for how to start a novel. You've probably heard some of these: Start in the middle of the plot (i...

Probably the most important thing a story can do is make the reader care about its characters. There are a number of factors in what makes u...

In a first draft, we often write things as they occur to us. Maybe some dialogue first, an occasional gesture or action by one of the charac...

A common question writers wrestle with is whether they should write what they love or write what will sell. This is an important question! B...

A very common issue I come across while editing is overuse of "fancy" dialogue tags like these: He exclaimed She cried out They pl...

I wrote about writer's block way back in the beforebeforetimes, but wouldn't you know I actually learned new things in the fourteen ...

I know it's been a while. I've been ridiculously busy , but as promised , here's a quick editing tip on something I always wishe...