Essential Guide to Writing a Novel

The reader is like a camera as the scene unfolds.  Where should that camera be?  How far away from the characters and the action?  Here are thoughts on authorial distance, about the benefits of placing the camera--the reader--near or far.  Plus, how Charlotte Bronte worked. Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.Support the showBuy the master class.

Here are the most important fiction writing techniques boiled down to twenty-five minutes.  I've talked about all these elements in prior episodes but sometimes it's useful to hear things again.  This episode is a refresher.Support the showBuy the master class.

We may be writing a comic novel or we may want to add humor to our thriller or romance or horror or literary novel.  Humor adds a strong element to most any story.  Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas: “Funny how?  I mean, funny like I'm a clown?  I amuse you?  I make you laugh?"  Well, yeah.  Let's see how we can make readers laugh.Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.Support the showBuy the master class.

Good descriptions of characters should do double duty: they can let the reader know what the character looks like and the description can also suggest something about the character's personality.  Here are examples and thoughts on double duty descriptions.  Also, how Alice Walker works. Support the showBuy the master class.

The title is the book browser's first impression of our novel.  The title should tempt the browser to pick up and open the book.  Here are thoughts on how we can give our story a strong, enticing title.  Also, how do famous authors edit their own manuscripts?  Maybe we can learn from them the best way to self-edit our stories.Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.Support the showBuy the master class.

We can write dialogue that makes readers laugh.  Here are thoughts on creating funny conversations between our characters.  Plus, we don't need to have our character look into a mirror to describe herself, which has been done time and again.  Here are ways to avoid the mirror.Support the showBuy the master class.

A story's first sentence should make the reader ask, "What's next?"  They should propel the reader into the story.  Here's how to do it right and how to do it wrongly.  Also, three master writers show us how to describe a setting.Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.Support the showBuy the master class.

Dialogue is fun to write and fun to read.  Our story should have lots of it.  Here's a powerful thing dialogue can do: it can reveal (that is, to show rather than tell) what a character is thinking.  The character's conversation can be lively and fun, and hearing the character speak is so much stronger than reading the character's mind.  Here are thoughts on writing revealing dialogue. Support the showBuy the master class.

The  first pages of our novel should contain certain elements and avoid certain elements.  Here's a list of things to include and exclude in those first pages.  Plus, ways to write forceful, clear, and lovely sentences.Here is a 20-episode master class on fiction writing—a start-to-finish course covering plot, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentence-level craft, and much more.  Each episode is focused and about 30 minutes.  The full class—all 20 episodes—is available now for a one-time price of forty-nine dollars.  If you want structured, concise guidance, click the Buy the Master Class link in the show notes to get started.Support the showBuy the master class.

In these episodes I try to set out good writing advice but a lot of bad advice is out there, so here is a list of bad advice, and the list may help us avoid writing blunders.  Here are also ten dialogue mistakes, and avoiding them likely means we end up with engaging and even riveting dialogue for our characters.Support the showBuy the master class.