Lessons I’ve Learned from Editing (and being edited!)

Last night, I received the final feedback about Eleanor from my editor! To commemorate the experience, I thought I would share some of the lessons I have learned from editing (and being edited!) with you all... Clarify time transitions at the beginning of the chapter. Pacing was one of my top concerns when I submitted the manuscript of Eleanor to …

The 3 Friends Who Need to Read Your Book Before You Release It

The friends who read our books after we release them are great, but the friends who read our books before we release them are priceless. Their input helps us mold our books into the shapely works of art that the rest of the world gets to see. Without these friends, our books would be very different. They might even …

Dress Up Your Prose with Poetry

Confession: I am not a poet. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate poetry. I do! I admire many little turns of phrase, EE Cummings writing that "nothing, not even the rain, has such small hands” or Anis Mojgani concluding that his wife makes him feel “like honey and trombones, like honey and trombones.” …

How to Make a Writer Jump on the Bed

Step one) Be an amazing editor. A Simon & Schuster/Penguin Random House/Harper Collins expat. The magic behind the pages of Ken Follet, Isabel Allende, Jennifer Weiner, Bruce Springstein, Cyndi Lauper... Someone who says "for me, the goal of every edit, no matter how big or small, is to build a stronger bridge between writer and …

Put Your Characters to the Test

Throughout my life, I can think of a number of topics over which I have supremely geeked out. Personality tests are definitely one of my pet geekouts. I think the fascination began when I was a bored middle school student, with a binder full of paper tucked under my arm at all times. Middle school + boredom …

6 Profound Ways to Write “I Love You”

Cutting to the chase here (because I got a little overexcited with my samples below): Saying "I love you" for the first time is one of the most vulnerable and universal experiences known to man. As a writer, "I love you" moments are pivotal. What better opportunity do you have to engage your reader's sympathy than to draw them into …

Writers and Their Inner Voices

I've been toying with a theory about the formation of a preference for writing vs. speaking (and vice versa). Most people I know do have some preference. They either feel more comfortable communicating through the written word or the spoken one.  The impetus of my theory was myself, washing dishes one night. As I was washing the …

5 Unique Narrative Forms (Experiment Away!)

I am fascinated by creative writing. And by that, I don't just mean that I am fascinated by creative stories, stories with fresh plots, quirky characters, and imaginative settings. I mean that I am fascinated with creative ways of writing those stories. Here are 5 of the most creative ways to tell a story that I have come …

How to Capture a Setting in 4 Days: Ireland Edition

It's Halloween night, and I am sitting on the edge of a pub stool in Dingle, Ireland, warming my hands with a mug of (appropriately) orange-colored soup. The deftest voice I've ever heard is crooning through a ballad, inspired by a 13th century insane asylum . . . My staff has murdered giants, my bag a …

5 Genres You May Have Read Without Knowing It

The taxonomy of books is similar to the taxonomy of animals. Most of us can recognize the higher level divisions; we know what makes plants different than animals, fiction different than non-fiction. Many of us understand the mid range divisions too. We know what makes a mammal a mammal, a reptile a reptile, a horror …