When your novel is too long

None of us set out to write War and Peace. Although it seems like a beautifully written book, it’s also drudgery to read through!…

Stay on track with Scrivener

One of the tools I use in Scrivener is of course the target word count. Everyone learns about the project total, but I like…

Pant’sing Vs. Planning

Most writers are pant’sers. most Pant’sers struggle with writer’s block. Most pant’sers have trouble finishing their books. Jerry Jenkins thinks most writers are planners…

Scene Construction

Constructing a scene should be simple enough. You get a visual of what you want to happen like a little movie, and you write…

Spark Sheets

One thing I’ve mentioned on my Twitter account is literally the single biggest change in my writing in the last year. I’ve come to…

Character Creation

What’s the single most important contribution you give your story? It’s not just the plot… Let’s look at the logline. “It’s about a guy…

Writing This Year’s Novel

Can you write this year’s novel? Absolutely. One of the things I’ve been writing about is those people who sit and spend eleven years…

What didn’t work this year?

It’s easy to get focused on “What didn’t work?” You can get discouraged. How many of you tried Nanowrimo? did you succeed in writing…

The Truby Rules

“Most screenplays fail at the concept level.” This is something I’ve been seriously thinking about lately. There’s almost a mathematical precision to writing movies,…