Essential Guide to Writing a Novel
Essential Guide to Writing a Novel
Latest Episodes
Episode 234 - Creating a character readers will love.
What do Elizabeth Bennett, Anne Shirley, Frodo Baggins, Jo March, Harry Potter, and Huckleberry Finn have in common? Readers love them. We can create such a character, one readers will long remember and maybe reread the storyl just ...
Episode 233 - Peeling the onion.
We writers can train ourselves to peel the onion: to look more deeply at places and people, and so set forth our discoveries in lovely language in our stories. Here's how the masters do it. Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "action is cha...
Episode 232 - More on making our dialogue engaging for readers.
Readers love dialogue. It's as if they are part of the scene, sitting there and listening to our characters argue or romance each other or plan something important. Here are additional techniques to grip readers with our dialogue.&n...
Episode 231 - Techniques to make our dialogue grab readers.
Dialogue is like a Snickers candy bar: it's good. Here are eight techniques for making conversations in our story engage the reader, things we should do and things we should avoid. Also, how did Sue Monk Kidd handle her first reject...