
Getting Notes – Ten Things to Consider
I got an email this morning from one of my students who just received a pile of notes on her work-in-progress and
Try to recall your favorite story. How did it begin? What were the first words? If the first lines of...
Does the word “symbolism” give you unwelcome flashbacks to your high school English classes? The idea is foreign when we...
Previously, I unpacked the theory behind synopsis writing, explored the mechanics of what makes a synopsis work, and defined its...
Without flaws, characters may be admirable, but they don’t feel real. Humans are complex and contradictory. We’re all naturally flawed...
It may sound dry, but at the heart of every story is an argument. The theme (or dramatic question) is...
I suppose everything is easier said than done. The same is true for writing. It’s one thing to say a...
I got an email this morning from one of my students who just received a pile of notes on her...
The first draft is about diving into the unknown, invoking the muse, and writing from our right brains. The next...
Redundancy is not only a sign of lazy writing; it can also pull us out of the story by interrupting...
Sometimes we’ve written characters that don’t belong in our story because their function is redundant. Conflict might arise that don’t...
Just because you might be a first-time novelist, it doesn’t mean you’re not the authority over your work. No agent,...

I got an email this morning from one of my students who just received a pile of notes on her work-in-progress and

Redundancy is not only a sign of lazy writing; it can also pull us out of the story by interrupting the narrative

Sometimes we’ve written characters that don’t belong in our story because their function is redundant. Conflict might arise that don’t add anything

Just because you might be a first-time novelist, it doesn’t mean you’re not the authority over your work. No agent, publisher, or

The first draft is about diving into the unknown, invoking the muse, and writing from our right brains. The next step, the