World Building in an Historical Novel

There are dozens (hundreds?) of articles on world building in fantasy and science fiction novels. But what about in other genres? We cannot forget that in any novel, no matter what genre, you are creating a world for your reader. Whether it is a small town in middle...

Your Character Bible

If you are a serious author, please don’t do what I did—your future self will thank you. Keep a book bible! For every book you write you need a list of all of the characters mentioned. You may not think that it’s so important. You know who your characters are. Why is...

What do you do when you’re stuck?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a pantser or a plotter, everyone gets stuck in their writing now and then. I’m sure you’ve read so many articles on writer’s block filled with so many suggestions (hell, I’ve written one myself). Go for a walk. Plot your story. Look at...

How Many Brains Do You Need?

Starting last Fall and continuing on through this whole year, I’ve been exploring and playing with Personal Knowledge Management. I wrote another blog post on the topic, but today I want to talk about another new-to-me concept: Second Brain. I’m discovering that this...

How long should your novel be?

I struggle with this. I naturally write short. I’m concise, what can I say? I can somehow create well-rounded, in-depth characters in very few words. I can show just enough of a room so that it can be imagined by the reader. It doesn’t take me long at all to show the...

The Rules of Writing

Somerset Maugham once said that there are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. Well, a few people didn’t get the message. Here are rules for writing a novel, the process of it, the craft, editing, and then miscellaneous rules...