Let’s Create a Series Bible

You have sealed your passion-infused romance novel with the last two celebratory words: The End. Your cast of characters are so dynamic they jumped off the page and popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly and it didn’t faze you one bit. This describes writing that screams, “Make me a Series!” I wrote about… Read more »

Forewords, Introductions, & Prologues… Oh My!

Forewords, introductions, prefaces, and prologues can be important pieces of your manuscript—or they can be critical to avoid. So, it’s important to understand the differences between them. Using these terms correctly will assure editors and agents that you know your stuff and help you craft great front matter your readers won’t skip through. What is… Read more »

Deep Dive into Short Forms: Historical Poetry

My next few articles will act as a deep dive into specific short form works. We’ll examine a piece from each short form and dive deep into its inner workings to find the path to success in our own short form pieces. Last month at the Looking Glass Rock Writers Conference, I rediscovered mystery and… Read more »

Mounting Forces — Signpost Scene #10

All right, writers! We’re in the home stretch. If you’ve been following along with my last nine articles studying James Scott Bell’s insightful book on plot, Super Structure, you know everything I’ve discussed leading up to this crucial—yet quick—signpost scene. If you haven’t (I encourage you do!), here’s a quick summary: we’ve just left Act… Read more »

What Psychology and Neuroscience Contribute to your Stories

Psychology is classified as a social science. It attempts to apply scientific methodology to a chaotic system (the human mind) which we still don’t fully understand. It can’t be mathematically defined, though statistics can point out correlations. There are so many variables involved (genetics, biology, environment, experience) that it’s difficult to rule out other causes… Read more »