“Tell me about this story idea,” the woman at the next table says. She’s talking to a young man, mid- to late twenties, and he responds with a description of some things that interest young men, hot women and sexy cars or vice versa, and the woman says, “But what’s the story?” and he pushes…

The querying process can be very hard mentally and emotionally. If you want to be traditionally published, though, it is one of the ways you’re most likely to land an agent. You can participate in Twitter pitch wars, attend a conference with pitch sessions, and so on but you don’t need to wait for a…

Plot, character, and setting are the trifecta of novel writing. They all have to work together or the story doesn’t work at all. You know the old freelancer saying, “You can have it fast, cheap, or good, pick two?” Same with plot, characterization, and setting. Authors who are terrific with plot and setting usually suck…

Often people who want to write a story start with a character or a general situation in mind: “A female superhero with a lasso of truth!” “Terrorists take the president hostage!” And these are certainly perfectly good places to start. But it’s hard to create much narrative drive from situations and characters. Look at those…

I’m an editor who is also a writer, but I would caution you to be careful of hiring an editor whose main experience is their own writing and revising process. Being a writer has certainly helped me understand what the writing and revision process is like (at least for me) and how it feels to…

A long time ago I wrote a novel I loved. Loved. It was a flawed novel, as many beginning efforts are, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love it. I still love that novel, even though I’m perfectly well aware of its imperfections. I may in fact love it because of its imperfections. It is…

A common problem I often come across when editing fiction is a situation where characters are shoved around the story like chess pieces. Margie the protagonist winds up slapping her best friend not because Margie would ever slap her best friend but because the plot requires the best friend to be slapped. Authors often commiserate…

I recently read The Story Paradox by Jonathan Gottschall, which is all about the dangers of storytelling. If you’re interested in learning how stories work, you’ll want to set aside some time to read this book. I wanted to talk about a point he makes early in the book, which is that stories where the…

When I’m writing, I rarely listen to music because the words of the lyrics interfere with my words. If I need to drown out the kids across the street, I will listen to white noise or an instrumental station on Pandora. Sometimes, though, if I’m doing something like giving feedback to students, where the lyrics…