Ten Tips to Write Dialogue Right

Ten Tips to Write Dialogue Right

I’ve been reading a sad amount of iffy dialogue recently from overuse of names to unnatural sounding speech to wrong punctuation. So, I decided now would be a great time to do a quick reminder of how to do dialogue right. And we all love “listacles” so here is one for...
How Many Plots Make a Story?

How Many Plots Make a Story?

How many times have you sat down at your desk at work and did one thing without interruption until it was finished? My bet is that the answer is almost never. Things happen: an email comes in that must be responded to immediately, your boss demands that you finish...
The Goldilocks Novel Length

The Goldilocks Novel Length

How long should your book be? Do you worry about this? I know authors have enough to think about when they’re writing a novel—character arcs, plot arcs, conflict, and that timeline—but should they also worry about the length of the book? Some people say no. A...
Questions for Romance: Getting it right

Questions for Romance: Getting it right

Welcome to the third and last post in my series on important questions to ask when writing fiction. If you missed the other posts, you can find the first one (Big Picture Questions to Ask) here and (More Questions to Ask which covers character development and setting)...
More Questions to Ask as You Write

More Questions to Ask as You Write

Last week we looked at some big picture questions you need to be asking either before you begin writing (if you’re a plotter) or while editing (if you’re a pantser). If you missed that post, here’s a link to it. Today, I’d like to cover some...