Voice is possibly the most elusive part of being a great writer. It’s tough to pin down why some voices work and others don’t. We love voices that feel real and authentic, but we also love voices that are over-the-top and full of outrageous personality.

It’s tough to develop a voice and for some writers it’s the hardest part of the writing process. Once you’ve gotten down the structure and you’re avoiding grammar mistakes, your writing might still lack the sort of voice that publishers go crazy for. Continue reading →

Historically, storytelling was often used as a tool to convey religious, moral, or even political messages. Stories made concepts easy to pass along to others, especially when not everyone could read.

But today, we no longer tell stories for the purpose of conveying morals. This doesn’t mean that books today never have morals, but it does mean that the publishing industry expects the story to stand on its own merit. Continue reading →

Everybody loves a good action scene! When fists go flying or cars blow up, it preys on our most primal feelings and fears. But a bad action scene is worse than no action scene at all. Whether it’s too detailed or too vague, badly written action  can cause readers to groan rather than grip the edge of their seats.

So how can we write amazing butt-kicking action sequences? Continue reading →

Welcome to the third week of Novel Boot Camp! This week we will be working on peer critiques. The complete list of novel openings is at the end of this post, but before we get started I want to offer a few pointers. Continue reading →

We all understand the importance of contrast in our lives. You can’t know happiness without sadness. You can’t fully appreciate what you have unless you’ve had less. But writers often don’t consider how contrast is important to a successful novel.

Not only does contrast help us to put things into perspective, it’s also more entertaining. Continue reading →

I’m going to break from our usual schedule and post the workshop submission page a bit earlier than usual. I would like to be able to get the bulk of this workshop organized and ready over the weekend rather than during my work week.

So for this workshop, I will not be taking submissions past the due date. You must have your submission to me by 8am EST Monday August 17th! Continue reading →