Fiction

Jennie Nash’s “The Threadbare Heart”: A Review

May 1, 2010

(Pssst! Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to enter Jennie Nash’s Mother’s Day contest for your chance to win some fantastic prizes!) Jennie Nash‘s latest novel, The Threadbare Heart (May 2010, Berkley Trade), explores themes of love, loss and hope through three generations of marriages. Lily is a fifty-something college professor, wife to Tom, mother

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Confessions of a Former Query Letter Addict

April 22, 2010

Today’s post is written by Nina Badzin. Thanks, Nina! How do you know when you’re a query letter addict instead of a novelist? When you recognize yourself in the following scenario. You spent a year writing a novel and revised it twenty times. Armed with tips from agents’ blogs, you crafted such a compelling letter

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The Baby-Steps Method to Writing a Novel

April 19, 2010

It’s said that most people think they have a story in them–a novel-sized story. Writing a novel is a huge task, but looking at the big picture makes it appear much larger than it needs to be. Think of writing as a process, rather than an end product. Don’t tell yourself you must write 300

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6 Writers Who Broke the Rules and Got Away with It

April 9, 2010

Have you ever read a book and noticed the author has broken what we writers often hear of as “the rules”? My initial reaction is usually indignation: “Why can she get away with that, and I can’t??” The more I study the craft of writing, the more rules I hear about, and most of these

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21 Writing Prompts for Setting a Scene in Your Novel

April 6, 2010

When you’re writing a scene, do you ever get the feeling you just don’t have enough to say? Sure, there’s the action–but what about all the extra bits meant to flesh out your story? While I don’t encourage overwriting for the sake of word count, meaningful details can help you establish setting and atmosphere. Last

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15 Reader Frustrations to Avoid in Your Novel

March 25, 2010

If you’re writing a novel–or planning to in the near future–have you stopped to consider your readers? Some of you write solely for the pleasure of it, never intending anyone to read your work. In that case, write however you want. Do what makes you happy. Most of us, on the other hand, write to

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