(painting: Olga Rykova) I'm often asked: What categorizes a novel as either "literary" or "popular"? What’s the difference? Popular novels usually fall into a half-dozen categories called genres: romance, mystery, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Of...

The Plot / Character Debate Have you ever noticed how critics will sometimes categorize a novel as either “plot driven” or “character driven"? If that's got you puzzled about how it applies to the story you're writing, I can understand why. They make it sound like you...

The Prime Time Dream When you’re writing a story, do you dream of seeing it one day made into a film? I certainly do. So I’m thrilled to let you know that the dream may soon be a reality! It’s happening with my novel Entrapped. Working with my creative partners –-...

What Do Agents and Publishers Really Want? In my career as an author I've faced every challenge you're facing. Having had ten novels published, with sales of over half a million books, I know what agents and publishers are looking for, what they want—and don’t want....

MYTH-BUSTERS Myths can distort and darken a writer's world. I want your creative world to be sunshine-bright. So I offer here some myth-busting to chase away the clouds. Myth #1. It’s Impossible To Get Published These Days This myth says the publishing industry is a...

"I couldn't put it down!" Authors love to hear readers say those words. So do our publishers. But what, exactly, is this mysterious literary essence that hooks a reader? What holds them so hard, they simply must keep reading, often long into the night? I unlock the...

How To Write a Winning "Hook" Do you slave over your story’s opening sentence? Good! That’s what successful writers do: write it, revise it, and tweak it until they’re sure it will fire the reader's desire to know what comes next. A first sentence must be a "hook."...

Writing? An extreme sport? Hell, yes. We rappel up rock-faces of chapters. We raft through rapids of plot. We hang-glide on unstable character arcs, and bobsled down ice alleys of dialogue, then run a marathon of revision. Sometimes, like the fellow in the Stephen...

  A big "Thank You" bouquet to Karen Alison. Karen is a gifted emerging writer who sent me the manuscript of her debut novel for my evaluation. After mulling my comments and suggestions, she did a rewrite, then sent me a testimonial of how happy she was with the...