Writers' craft

I have long been an anxious writer. Every sentence written reminds me of the hundreds more that could have stood in its place, missed opportunities for assonance or characterization, clauses left dependent that could have-should have-been made independent.  Read more

For anything that [you're] consciously trying to get to the finish line, move it forward. I make a joke to my students: if you decide mid-stream that all of the characters live on the moon, they're on the moon from now on. Just don't go back and spend a bunch of time, like, changing Earth to Moon in chapters one through five. Just keep going.  Read more

Writers have long been fascinated with themselves and their craft, seeing a wealth of material in what is seemingly a rather mundane art-merely putting words on paper, or words onscreen. But in their own reflections, which can often border on myopic, writers have developed an entire, fascinating genre of writing about writing. In some ways, almost all popular stories are about writing.  Read more

I write on this subject a lot, because I believe that a strong character arc really is the key to an emotionally affecting novel, one that will make a strong connection with readers. And over my decade plus as a book coach, I've seen it over and over: the strongest, most affecting character arcs are anchored in the author's own experience.

What is falling action? This is a question I ask myself about once a year. Why do I ponder falling action so regularly? Well, I teach junior high English, and nowhere does falling action have more importance than in the middle school English class. That's because falling action is part of Freytag's Model, the story pyramid, a standard structure that teachers use to introduce plot structure.  Read more