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Through whose eyes are we seeing the story? This is a critical question that the novelist and the narrator of the story must answer. Is it told through the author’s eyes, the eyes of a single character, or through the…

This is the article I hated to write. In writing a novel, you find yourself writing a scene for which you had great enthusiasm,  You expect that it’s going to be an integral part of your book, either providing additional…

  Common lore is that when our readers  pick up a novel, they study the book cover and read the first chapter, deciding whether its enticing. If it is, then they buy the book. I’ve spoken about this philosophy before,…

  There are complex and detail questionnaires created for authors to describe their characters.  Beginning with the most important question, “what is the character’s role in this book?” They then move down through physical descriptors (how tall are they? Are…

I am told that for several of his books, Stephen King didn’t lay out the novel a priori. He developed his characters and then placed them in the scene, letting them  do what they’re going to. Sometimes the book ends…

It is said that physicians have to train for 10,000 hours to become competent practitioners. The same for lawyers. The same for hockey goalies, and baseball pitchers. The same for military masterminds and chess masters. The same for physicists and…

You have a great idea for your novel. You’ve developed the characters with good complex relationships over weeks. You know the two or three themes that the novel will explore.. And you have the perfect location for it, the Aegean…

When the reader opens a file or picks up a hard copy of your book, they are entering into a tacit contract with you. Their part of the contract is to put their life on hold. They’re not going to…

Writing a novel is preparing to engage in a fight, not with the reader but with the reader’s attention. Readers are continuously pulled away from your writing. Their cell rings.  They get a text message. They just received a deluge…

So when I’m ready to write a scene’s first draft, I have much on which to rely. I know the purpose of the scene, and I know its setting (an Indiana field in the spring, the Situation Room in the…