There's a bunch of apps out there to help you be a better writer. You may want to try a few to see what works for you. May I recommend Oblique Strategies? It's available for both Android (here) and Apple (here) This sleek, straightforward app is designed to give you simple food for thought and [...]
It's a difficult thing, a solid thing, a hard thing: to let go. To release. But, decisions change the world.
Congratulations! You've finished the initial drafts of your manuscript. Maybe you even went through developmental edits or critique partners already. Now, you think you're ready for content editing or line editing. Not so fast. You want everything to be as clean as possible—you want to save yourself the time and money of making editors do [...]
There's a problem with doing something well: Once is rarely enough. When you do something well, two things can happen: Other people begin to expect more of you, and You begin to expect more of yourself For a writer, this can be great. A well-done piece deserves the admiration it receives, and you [...]
Understand Personality to Connect with Audience & Write Strong Characters Who are your readers? Who are your characters? How do you connect them? In essence, this is the challenge of the fiction writer -- replacing real people with believable ones, and then somehow making them real for the real ones. The connections? Personality. (Not even [...]
Emotion breaks across the page in poetry. I examine how Charles Bukowski hid vulnerability in his strength.
Readers think they're smart. Be prepared to go Gonzo rather than trying to trick them.
Use chance and luck to explore subtle nuances of a character's choices and fufill their destiny.
The universe is in constant motion. This is my understanding of its oh-so-important laws of physics. Movement is as natural and as important to the world condition as anything. Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, it's important to address your characters movements through space. How can you describe the movements of people in their mannerisms and [...]
Writers love to read. Learn to leverage your reading for better writing.