In my new book, The Linchpin Writer: Crafting Your Novel’s Key Moments, I talk about how movies can sabotage a novelists’ writing skills. Novelists can definitely learn storytelling techniques from movies, but you shouldn’t rely on movies too much. After all, they are a different storytelling medium, and books can do things that movies can’t… Read more »
Call them what you will. Nonwriters, Muggles, Philistines. Just kidding. We know them. We love them. They’re our parents, our friends, our partners and significant others. They’re the people in our lives with whom we share everything. But sometimes we aren’t always sure how to share this one thing with nonwriters. You know, one of… Read more »
Over the last ten months, as I’ve been on this journey of one full year of fiction writing, I’ve gone through a multitude of creative highs and lows. When I’ve been in a good place with my writing and imagination, I’ve managed to finish creative projects way ahead of schedule. (For example, I had planned… Read more »
If you could ask Charles Dickens one question about writing, what would it be? Would you ask him how he thought up memorable character names such as Scrooge and Miss Havisham? Or, would you simply request to look over his shoulder, quill in hand, as he plots out “David Copperfield?” Thanks to filmmakers, who are… Read more »
You’re at a your high school reunion and after exchanging pleasantries with your former classmates, someone asks that inevitable question: “You’re a writer? What’s your book about?” You stumble through a reply, explaining that it’s a character-driven coming-of-age story and that the main character is struggling to find love but finds herself instead… And then… Read more »
