Does a good novel need a message? Does it need to say something important about the human condition, offer some…
One of the easiest mistakes we writers make, or as least I make, is repeating an idea. Once I have…
I’m going to depart from the usual posts about my writing and talk instead about my reading. I am a…
Ernest Hemingway wrote 39 different endings for his classic A Farewell to Arms, which only proves that great writers are…
There is an ongoing debate about the reality of writer’s block. One author, Mercedes Lackey, wrote: “There is no such…
An old standby that I think works pretty well, if not overdone, is to use the weather to reflect the…
I’m a great believer in foreshadowing. Done well, at an appropriate time and with subtlety, it positions the reader to…
I had been characterizing myself as a mystery writer, because that’s what I thought I was writing. Development, my first…
Does a good mystery require a murder or other equally serious crime? The genre of mystery writing is replete with…
For weeks now, if not longer, I have been trying to wedge my Empty Luck characters into pre-planned actions that…