Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

Here are ten smaller techniques that'll improve our story, each maybe not big enough for a full segment but worthwhile to help make our story gripping and our sentences shine. Also, here are thoughts about our story's...

What do Elizabeth Bennett, Anne Shirley, Frodo Baggins, Jo March, Harry Potter, and Huckleberry Finn have in common? Readers love them. We can create such a character, one readers will long remember and maybe reread the...

We writers can train ourselves to peel the onion: to look more deeply at places and people, and so set forth our discoveries in lovely language in our stories. Here's how the masters do it. Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald's...

Readers love dialogue. It's as if they are part of the scene, sitting there and listening to our characters argue or romance each other or plan something important. Here are additional techniques to grip readers with...

Dialogue is like a Snickers candy bar: it's good. Here are eight techniques for making conversations in our story engage the reader, things we should do and things we should avoid. Also, how did Sue Monk Kidd handle her...

The shark. Dracula. Draco Malfoy. Cathy Ames. Annie Wilkes, Hannibal Lecter. Jadis the White Witch. Aren't these villains masterful creations, and don't they keep readers glued to the story? Here are ideas on how we can...

Every element of our story should add interest, including the settings. What if--because of the plot or characters--we must place a scene in an otherwise dull place? We can juice it up. We can make it lively and...

Every element in our story should contribute to entertaining the reader including our settings. We can replace our dull settings with fascinating locations, and here's how to do it. Also: what's wrong with this...

Almost all successful fiction writers are close observers. We can teach ourselves to be close observers, and use those observations in our characters and settings. And here are examples of close observations from the...

Novels that endure not only have bold plots but are also beautifully written. Here are techniques on how to make our sentences shine. Also: should we write our first chapter first and our last chapter last (as does John...

Cliches can offer solid advice. Pedal to the metal. Go big or go home. Leave it all on the field. We should swing for the fences with a bold plot. Also: a setting can be more than facts about the landscape. The masters...

Some of us may describe our characters using only the sense of sight: what the reader sees when imagining the character. But we can also use sound, smell, taste, and texture to make our characters more memorable. Here...

I talk about ways we can make our settings--the time and place of our story--irresistible to readers. They'll want to live there. Plus: we can use our global search function to almost instantly make our sentences more...

Here are pocket-sized techniques that can result in strong sentences; small--even tiny--things we can add to our prose writing arsenal. Also, Elizabeth George on her use of two outlines: the step outline and the running...

For readers, fiction offers escape from their real lives. How can we make our writing intense, and so lift our scenes above real life? Details are a key, and here are ideas on the use of odd and memorable details to...