3 Step Method to Finding and Fixing Plot Holes

My latest novel, The Terminarch Plot, is probably my most ambitious work yet.  I spent at least 6 months designing the backstory and various otherworldly settings where the series would take place. However, once the first novel was complete and off to the beta-readers, I was informed right away that there were several plot holes that

Your Rough Draft is Finished…Now What?

You’ve written a 50K plus novel.  It’s been a difficult road.  Perhaps you spent six months or six years, but it is finally done and you feel that sense of accomplishment that comes with completing such a monumental task. Now what? The following is my personal regimen that moves a rough draft to a finely

The Biggest Mistake Made When Writing a Crucial Chapter

Currently I am reading Spell or High Water, book 2 in Scott Meyer’s “Magic 2.0” series.  The novel series is a best seller, and not only that is a fantastic trilogy of novels that I highly recommend.  However, I reached a point in the novel that was a crucial chapter, a chapter where a lot of

New Podcast Up: Beta-Readers and Movie Blahs

In this episode, Ryan and I discuss the importance of using beta-readers when writing a novel. We first define what beta-readers are, how a writer goes about finding them and how a writer compensates beta-readers for their valuable input into the production of your novel. We also discuss the current movie season and how it resembles a

3 Web Tools for Free Promotion and Beta-Reading

As an indie author, I am always on the lookout for ways to promote my books and make them better.  This week I found a few tools on the web that could potentially help me with this process.  As always, I thought I’d share: Wattpad – I had heard about this site a long time

Trying Out Wattpad: A Beta-Reading Experience

I have known about Wattpad.com for some time now, but have never thought about giving it a go until now.  I do have many beta-readers who will read my novels and give great commentary and criticism, but nothing beats a host of strangers reading your novel and then telling you what they think. If they

5 Ways to Improve Your Writing Style

Why is it that two different writers could write in the same genre, write about the same ideas, plot devices and themes yet one writer creates beautiful prose while the other makes the reader never want to read again? Every time I write a chunk of prose that really sings through the initial first draft,

10 Things to Consider Before Writing a Novel

Currently life is preventing me from reaching my daily quota on my new writing project.  I suppose if I hadn’t considered a few rules to set for myself before I began this project, I would be spinning my wheels in the endless morass of counter-productivity. I set some basic ground rules before I began writing,