When I speak to writers–professionals and beginners alike–there seems to be a LOT of worry out there about being a “good” writer. Imagine that! Apparently a lot of us writers out there want to write WELL. The nerve! Consequently, I also get a lot of questions along the lines of, “how do I stay motivated  … Read more

When I look back at the 185 rejection letters I got from agents when I was trying to sell a book to a publisher, I can find one common theme throughout. And it usually looked something like this: “Great voice! No story.”  At the time, I didn’t understand this critique. I was like, “What are  … Read more

Here’s a little secret. Readers don’t like reading about perfect heroes who have all their stuff together. Perfect heroes without any flaws or problems whatsoever are bo-o-oring. Not to mention, completely unrealistic. (I, for one, have yet to meet a human being whose life is entirely flawless.) . So if you want to create a  … Read more

Desperately in need of a good title for your book, screenplay, paper, article, or short story? Yeah, been there. I find that, for me, titles either come right at the very beginning (along with the idea) or not until the very last minute (i.e. the book is about to be printed and my editor is  … Read more

So, there you are. You’re writing like the wind. Things are going well. Words are flowing. The story is epic. The dialogue is snappy. And then SCREECH! You suddenly slam on the brakes because, wait a second, something is wrong. Everything you thought was going to work suddenly just…doesn’t.  Why??? YOU HAVE NO IDEA! Uh-oh. This is  … Read more

Not all scenes or chapters come to us fully formed, with witty dialogue, striking metaphors, beautiful prose, and perfect structure. Wouldn’t that be nice? For me, more often than not, scenes come to me in chunky, choppy bits and pieces. A dialogue exchange here, a nice description there, a sentence or two about how the  … Read more

You can’t become a concert pianist practicing only once a week. Just like you can’t become a proficient writer writing only once a week.   Those of you who have taken my online Productivity Hacks course know that I’m a big fan of setting up a writing routine. If there’s one piece of writing advice that  … Read more

More than fifteen novels under my belt and I’m STILL learning how to write and revise. Case in point: when working on the fourth and final draft of SKY WITHOUT STARS, the epic young adult space opera based on Les Mis that I co-wrote with Joanne Rendell, I was forced to solve a problem I’d never  … Read more

I was on a panel the other day with a group of very talented authors and the inevitable question popped up that seems to always pop up on writing panels: “How do you deal with Writer’s Block?” I was ready and armed with my standard answer (almost all of which can be found in this writing tip  … Read more

  Let’s face it, our characters are our babies. We birth them. We raise them. We sometimes even instill them with a few of our ticks and personality traits. That’s why it’s perfectly natural for us to want them to go out in the world and do nothing but succeed, just as we would with  … Read more

My first piece of advice to anyone who wants to write a novel is to start with an outline. But I know that’s easier said than done. Especially if you’re writing a novel for the first time, or if you’ve always considered yourself a “pantser” (a writer who writes by the seat of their pants)  … Read more

Not every scene makes it into the final book. Here’s a never-before-released prologue that I wrote for A WEEK OF MONDAYS that was deemed “entertaining, but not necessary.” It was definitely a darling that I had to cut but the book was already long and my editor and I both agreed that it wasn’t completely  … Read more

Inspiration is a wonderful, magical, coveted thing. Don’t we all wish that we could wake up every morning feeling inspired to write? Don’t we wish that every time we sat down in front of our computers, we had to fight to keep up with the words flowing out of us? But we all know that’s  … Read more

Imagine if someone handed you a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and told you to put it together. “Fine,” you say, “what is it supposed to look like? Do you have a picture of the final product?”  “No,” comes the callous response.   Then you turn over all of the pieces to find that they’re completely blank. There’s  … Read more

If you’re a writer you know it. It’s in your blood. In your DNA. You see stories everywhere. You live in a world of words. I meet writers all the time who say, “Well, I’m trying to be a writer.” Or “I’m an aspiring writer.” That’s like saying, “I’m an aspiring human being.” Don’t let  … Read more

Let’s face it. Writing is about .01% pure inspiration and about 99.99% tricking our brain into just getting words down on the page every day. I’m ALL for tricking my brain into doing things it doesn’t want to do. Those of you who have taken my Productivity Hacks for Writers course know I’m the master  … Read more

I know, I know. I’m the queen of the writing routine. You’ve probably heard me say more than once, “Write every day!” “Write even when you’re not inspired!” “Get your butt in the chair and get something down on the page!” And while I still firmly believe that writing every day is the fastest way  … Read more

Happy New Year everyone! To help you achieve those writing-related new year’s resolutions, today I’m sharing with you my 5 tips for improving your fiction writing…instantly! These are tips and tricks you can implement today, on the very next scene you write and it will instantly improve your writing. And if you want more where  … Read more

I don’t know about you but I’m a perfectionist, especially when it comes to my writing. I lie in bed at night thinking about all the ways I can improve what I wrote that day. This is the natural state of the writer. Always wanting to make it better. Always wanting to go back and  … Read more

Woo hoo! It’s almost NaNoWriMo time! For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it’s a great event that happens every November where novelists around the world take on the challenge of writing a novel (equivalent to 50,000 words or more) in one month. As someone who writes four  … Read more