I don’t usually spend a lot of time describing what my characters are wearing. Most of the time, I trust readers to fill in those blanks for themselves. But sometimes […]
When Your Manuscript Is Ready to Query
There is a particular kind of paralysis that hits writers at the threshold of querying. You have the manuscript. You have the agent list. And somewhere on your desk sits […]
Getting Unstuck When You Have No Idea What Happens Next
Every now and then, as writers, we hit a point where the story simply stops. Something has to happen next, nobody knows what it is, and the longer the cursor […]
The Long Game of a Writing Career
I’ve been doing a lot of math around this lately, thinking about what a writing career actually looks like over time. Not the big debut-novel fantasy with the six-figure advance, […]
Your Writing Process Doesn’t Have to Look Like Anyone Else’s
Most writers, at some point, look up from the page and wonder whether their writing process is all wrong. They’re not writing at their usual time. They’re leaning on different […]
Writing About a Niche Subject: How Much Should You Explain?
When I was working on my first novel, I knew almost nothing about ostrich farming. By the time I finished, I knew a lot, and then I had to figure […]
How to Outline Your Novel Without Killing the Joy
If the idea of outlining your novel makes you want to run screaming into the woods, you are not alone. Maybe you’ve tried it before. You sat down, you mapped […]