In real life, we value honesty in dialogue.  Say what you mean, don't make me guess.  Within reason, of course. In literature, dia...

When businesswoman Lura Fischer joined my online book-structuring class a few years ago, she told me she wanted to write a business fict...

One of my online students, new to writing fiction, brought up a couple of good and very important questions in class this week. 1.  Ho...

Here in New England of the U.S., we're getting dire news.  Winter is going to be long and intense again, like last year.   After the...

This week I removed a page from my novel's opening chapter. I'd worked on that page for two years, off and on, and workshopped th...

What's the difference between a writer who gets a book finished and a writer who never does?  A writing routine.  Believe it--there...

Deciding who is telling your story--that's a big moment in writing a book.  But even more important is deciding where your narrator ...

When we happily begin our books, we really don't know what kind of time they will take. Such naivete is a good plan, in a way. Igno...

The inner story of a book is the transformation of a person, the main character or narrator, through a series of outer events.  This is...

This week I am teaching about fighting--at a serene writer's retreat on beautiful Madeline Island in Lake Superior.  An odd topic fo...