5 Things to Consider Before Writing a NaNoWriMo Outline

The annual National Novel Writing Month (November) is only a few weeks away.  If you haven’t started on your outline for the event, then you’re in luck!  I’ve narrowed down the five most important things you should think about before you start work on it. Overkill – I’m sure you have a germ of a

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

3 Personal Benefits of Writing a Novel

I’ve written four novels now (if you include that terrible teen-becomes-werewolf novel I wrote in high school for a contest but never published) and I suppose that might make me somewhat of an authority to someone who is thinking about sitting down at a computer or legal pad to write a novel. I’m in the

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction: Embellishing Headlines for Plotlines

I am currently in the middle of writing the first installment of a science-fiction series I have called “The Five Rims”, the first book in the installment titled “The Last Terran”. The first book is a mystery novel at its core, set in a far-flung future universe where humans are not the saviors but the

Using First Person When Your Narrator Is A Jerk

I’m three chapters and over three thousand words into writing my WIP.  I reached a point yesterday where I stared at a passage and just didn’t know how I was going to write it in third person singular and get the true nuances of what my main character was feeling or what he was thinking

How to Write Your Novel In Under 20 Minutes by Simon Van Booy

And now it is time for a Saturday morning pep talk, writers.  Simon Van Booy, writer of several short stories, novels and other award winning text, who has also written some intriguing philosophy books, gives his two cents on writing and planning a novel…and why everyone should.  This is worth a listen.  Running time 17:51.

A Review of a Former Student’s Novel: Wolves and Men

As a teacher, one of the joys I experience is when a former student of mine makes good and does something amazing that has a positive impact on many.  This happens quite often, in fact, and recently I found out that one of my former students (from when I was a new teacher) published her

New Podcast Up: Too Much Exposition on Halloween

Eat too much candy last night?  Well there is also such a thing as feeding too much exposition to an audience and thereby creating the same situation with their “reader’s stomach.”  In this episode we discuss the all important subject of exposition. How much is too much? Do we assume that our audience is well

7 Things Every Fictional Character Needs

I’m currently crafting some character biographies for a new series I’m writing and thought I would share a few things about how I go about creating characters.  I’ve gleaned this from several sources, from my days in college writing classes and from just figuring things out over time. I use this format to write character

5 Websites To Help Authors Build Fanciful Worlds

Currently I am working on a short story collection to release sometime at the end of October.  I’m currently calling it Headless White Horse, and I’m in the throes of editing through the stories to make them perfect. In the mean time, I’m kicking around an idea to create a fictional system of planets for a