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...
Starting Right

Starting Right

It’s been a while since I’ve written about how to start a novel but since I’m working with a new coaching client who is going through this right now, I thought it couldn’t hurt to share what I’m doing with her. How you begin a novel very...
Editing: The Big Picture

Editing: The Big Picture

I am at That stage of writing my novel: Editing. You either love editing or hate it. It is taking your words and ideas and refining them. It is looking at the forest after you’ve spent months in the weeds. It’s hard. It’s painful. But it can be...
How to plot a romance novel

How to plot a romance novel

I was recently asked for references on how to plot a romance. As someone who’s been writing in the genre for years and reading as many books on the craft of writing as I can, I had very few recommendations for romance-specific craft books. It’s not that...
This Story Right Now

This Story Right Now

Writing a novel is not only multifaceted, complicated endeavor, it’s also a lot of fun! But one of the lessons I have come away with in my twenty year career is that no two books are the same. You don’t write them the same way, you don’t plot them the same way, hell,...