In an earlier blog we discuss how one can blend narrative and dialogue. Here we expand dialog use another way by conveying emotion and thereby provide a positive emotional experience for the reader. That is the novel’s point. This is…
We have said many times in these blogs that the purpose of a novel is to provide a positive emotional experience for the reader. But, how do we do this? The story is conveyed by the characters. They are the…
I spent most of my career in science writing narrative. Only narrative, and nothing but narrative. We don’t write manuscripts with dialog in them. Scientific books that I’ve written are long tracks of narratives broken up not by dialogue, but…
Misdirection in novel writing mimics life. As the misdirected, we are led down a predictable path, the “garden” path. We believe that no on has remembered our birthday, or that our significant other has let our anniversary slip by. I…
When it is time for you to give your presentation, you simply need the strength to follow through on your commitment to yourself. Don’t think ─ simply do what you planned to do. SlideshowsI sometimes am…
Sometimes in preparation for a pivotal lecture, it is easy to be plagued by new distractions. These distractions come disguised as questions that have no good answers. Examples are “What if the literary agent attends the most difficult of my…
There is no substitute for knowing the subject matter for a talk. The positive impact of personal sovereignty is minimized if the ultimate source of your discomfort as a novelist is that you simply do not know the subject material. One…
You’ve been asked to give a reading. Or to talk to your audience about your writing style. Or be part of a symposium on how to write novels in the 21St century. Problem is, you hate public presentations. Or maybe you…
What is a character going to do with a car bearing down on them? What will your protagonist-lawyer do when the Court sustains an objection against her. Don’t know? It’s time for imagination. There’s nothing better to solve difficult problems…
As a novelist in our current writing culture, you have to be involved in the advertising of your own book. This includes giving interviews; the most common type of interview is the web radio interview, where you are interviewed over…
