Editors craft books to follow the contours of an author’s voice. Insight, empathy, and artistic judgment are still best delivered by a human editor.
2 mins
It’s the season of villains
I always imagined I was the driving character in that play, and I wasn’t wrong. Villains make trouble and cause pain.
2 mins
A Plan to Finish Your Books
Writing chapter summaries keeps you inside the realm of your book, simple work around its edges where you sum up what’s unfolded in each piece of the story.
2 mins
AI can be used for good
2 mins
Balancing suspense versus clarity
Pace is something to balance. Sometimes we want things to be simply given to us, like Kurt Vonnegut advises. At other times readers want to simmer in the possibilities.
2 mins
How narrative writing lures readers
The interior life of characters flows out of narrative writing that is used in fiction. Finding ways to make narrative stand in for your scenes is good work when you’re revising, or even drafting a book.
2 mins
Writing Like a Kid Again
Difficult material lies at the start of a memoir, and there’s usually stories in it you’d rather not tell again. But as a kid, you could write those stories with the pencil on paper gusto. The meaning hadn’t crept up on you yet.
2 mins
Make more room for shorter books
A short novel can feel very in vogue. The 60,000-word novel is making a comeback, not fighting to be taken seriously.
2 mins
Use scenarios to see books
Any book, fiction or non-fiction, benefits from a view from on high. That’s your author’s chair. The scenario is your radar screen where you track the activity flowing through your book.
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