The VERY Fine Line Between Fiction and Reality… I’ve been obsessed with true-crime books since I read Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi as a twelve-year-old. (For the one person out there who doesn’t know, the book is about the 1969 Charles Manson murders.) I grew up in the suburbs of Denver and it was […]
Category Archives: Writing Tips
Tips on professional behavior for the writer
Tips on professional behavior for the writer It’s a good time of year to stick to those resolutions you made. I find that toward the end of the year, some of my best behavior gets sloppy. So here’s a reminder of how to present yourself as a professional author in all your dealings: 1) Courtesy. […]
5 Things That Writers Can Learn from Stephen King
5 Things That Writers Can Learn from Stephen King I remember the first time I read Carrie, the debut novel from Stephen King. I was younger than I probably should have been, found the nights darker and longer because of it but was also completely enthralled by each word. It was one of the first […]
Top 10 Writing Tips: Clare Mackintosh
Top 10 Writing Tips: Clare Mackintosh Find your premise. The best novels can be distilled into a single sentence, and finding the heart of your story is the best way to stay on track while you’re writing. Try explaining the book to someone else; the extra objectivity can make this exercise easier. Once […]
7 Ways to Use Passion to Power Your Writing
7 Ways to Use Passion to Power Your Writing Need inspiration? Tap into what makes you happy! The old adage to “write what you know” is only partly true. I’ve also found that to be a successful author and enjoy the process, you need to write what you love. Not only does it make writing […]
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s Ten Writing Tips
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s Ten Writing Tips Doug’s top five: Writing is like exercise or learning a musical instrument: you have to engage in it every single day, seven days a week, for at least an hour. If you want to play Chopin in Carnegie Hall, you’ll have to practice hard for […]
Tana French’s Top Ten Writing Tips
Tana French’s Top Ten Writing Tips It’s OK to screw up. For me, this was the big revelation when I was writing my first book: I could get it wrong as many times as I needed to. I was coming from theatre, where you need to get it right every night, because this audience will […]
Ten Writing Tips from Peter Robinson
Ten Writing Tips from Peter Robinson Remember that it’s writing you want to do. I’ve met many students who want to be writers, no doubt attracted by the glamour of being mentioned in blogs and tweets, darlings of the social media, full page reviews in the New York Times, the adulation of fans, hanging around […]
WRITE WHAT HAUNTS YOU
WRITE WHAT HAUNTS YOU I believe our best stories haunt us. Like ghosts, they linger at the edges of our subconscious, hover beside us in our waking hours, and whisper to us at our keyboards until, finally, we acknowledge their presence and listen. The more I’m at this craft of turning ideas into stories and […]
Top Ten Tips for Writing a Page-Turner
Top Ten Tips for Writing a Page-Turner When I sat down to write my first thriller, I wanted to write something that moved really fast, a story that was so intense that you couldn’t look away. My goal was to write a page-turner that the reader could not put down. The Couple Next Door has […]
Sandra Brown,“These eight books influenced me to become a writer.”
Sandra Brown,”These eight books influenced me to become a writer.” I was asked to guest blog about books that influenced me to become a writer. Hmm. Not as easy a request as it might seem. No doubt every book I’ve read, or that was read aloud to me before I acquired the skill, inched me […]
Getting your Inner Journalist on… Reporting Techniques That’ll Enhance Your Fiction
Getting your Inner Journalist on… Reporting Techniques That’ll Enhance Your Fiction Though it sounds counterintuitive, reporting techniques can greatly enhance your fiction. I wrote journalism and literary nonfiction for two decades before ever attempting to write fiction, but when my second memoir didn’t sell, I took the plunge. The transition was slow at first, but […]