Military history is often an underappreciated genre supposedly filled with stuffy biographies, or a litany of dates and battle names. When I took on the project of writing Flying Colors, even I approached the genre with the same perspective. As I would with any new project, I began with exploring possibilities and took to reading…. Read more »
Character development was widely (if unsurprisingly) regarded as one of the foundational pillars of writing a good story among the many top-selling authors present at this year’s ThrillerFest. In fact, “character” was the first of Steve Berry’s “6 C’s of Story Structure.” As Dale Brown said, “What is character? The motivations that drive the story …… Read more »
Hello Word Nerds! Welcome to very special episode of DIY MFA Radio. Exactly one year ago, Elisabeth Kauffman (our podcast producer) and I released the very first episode of DIY MFA Radio into the world. In this episode, she and I celebrate the show’s one-year anniversary with an interview, only now the tables are turned. Usually it’s… Read more »
So far in Developing Themes In Your Stories, we’ve covered character arcs, the story premise, and external conflict, which are all important building blocks for stories. Dialogue, however, is more of an interior design element. It adds color and life to a story and aids in the overall delivery. It’s also an excellent method for… Read more »
The blogosphere is full of advice for writers about self-promotion, building online relationships, self-branding, creating a platform, and more. But the truth is, if you ask most agents and editors what they’d most like to see from a new writer, the answer is almost always, “Great writing.” With that in mind, here are five ways to pursue excellence. 1…. Read more »
Hello and welcome to another awesome episode of DIY MFA Radio! I’m so excited to interview Sara Paretsky, author of 20 books, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski novels. In 1982 she introduced the world to private eye V.I. Warshawski in her book Indemnity Only. V.I. – tough, credible, street-smart, and feminine – challenged the stereotypes of… Read more »
Over the course of this year’s ThrillerFest, the highs and lows of the writer’s life—both as a craft and as a business—were discussed at length. In one-on-one interviews with genre titans Mark Billingham, Charlaine Harris, and Thrillermaster Nelson DeMille, as well as in a number of breakout panels, many of the participating authors shared about… Read more »
I’m in conference withdrawal. Last weekend I went to the Romance Writers of America national conference in New York City. I had as good of a time as I did at summer camp as a kid. And I’ve squashed the scary stigma of “networking” with its real meaning: making friends with people in your professional… Read more »
At this year’s ThrillerFest, discussions about platforming and marketing focused heavily on social media. Lynne Constantine suggested writers should of social media as a virtual cocktail party, in terms of how you should interact with others—it’s about connections, not sales. So don’t let social media platforming intimidate you—Kimberley Cameron assured that “It’s nothing to be… Read more »
Hello and welcome to another episode of DIY MFA Radio! I’m so excited to be sharing this interview with you from Thrillerfest! I met with Le French Book founder Anne Trager, and Le French Book authors Eric Giacometti, and David Khara to talk about writing thrillers for French and American markets. We had an amazing conversation… Read more »
