Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
A book’s opening words need to entice readers right away, especially readers who search for books online and who give a book only a few moments to capture their interest.
An examination of the storytelling modes to see how they effect story. Topics include narrative, dialogue, exposition, description, and narrative summary.
Readers don’t have to write books to know a lot about them—and writers would do well to respect the reader’s knowledge and expectations.
There’s a lot of conflicting advice that tells writers to never use words that end in -ing or to not use -ing words under certain conditions. Explore both the advice and the rationale behind it.
Explore the rationale behind writing advice before you choose to accept or reject it. Includes advice on semicolons, exclamation points, prologues, and opening stories with dreams.
Explore novel ways to look at the use of dialogue tags, especially at “said” and other verbs, such as laugh and smile, used as dialogue tags.
How’s a writer to know what writing advice is good and what is better ignored? A continuation of an earlier post.
Many writers stop working on a manuscript before it’s truly finished. Polish stories to add resonance and to make them sing.
Rather than listen to advice that says it’s unnecessary to learn the rules of writing and fiction, learn your craft.