Craft: Adding Jargon to Your Novel

Craft: Adding Jargon to Your Novel

A brief word about this blog first: The absolutely hardest thing about writing a weekly blog post is coming up with topics to write about. Since I’ve been publishing this blog for fifteen years now (!!!), I feel as if I’ve covered everything and sometimes many times...
Ten Ways to Give Your Character Their Voice

Ten Ways to Give Your Character Their Voice

Writing distinct character voices might be one of the most difficult parts of writing fiction. It is one thing to write great, believable dialogue that moves your story forward, but then to imbue those words with the individual voice of the character who speaks takes...
Non-Linear Storytelling–Should You Attempt It?

Non-Linear Storytelling–Should You Attempt It?

A client of mind recently sent me a novella. It started out with “four years ago.” Okay. I can deal with a little backstory to begin with. The next chapter was “one year ago.” Cool, we’re coming up on present day. A little slowly, but we’re good. Next chapter “present...
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...