Writers and Day Jobs A writer’s gotta have a day job. I knew that going in. I was in high school back then, learning about the Civil War and differential calculus and the reproductive system of the earthworm. It was important stuff, all of it. Earthworms are hermaphrodites. They have both male and female […]
Category Archives: Writing Tips
Why you haven’t written your book yet (and 5 ways to change that)
Why you haven’t written your book yet (and 5 ways to change that) There are plenty of good reasons to write a book: to have something to work on while loitering in coffee shops; to shape the way your grandkids remember you; to have something to talk about at cocktail parties in case you’re ever […]
Jeff Abbott’s Top Ten Writing Tips
Jeff Abbott’s Top Ten Writing Tips I think we’ve entered a time when we’re a lot more suspicious of writing advice than we used to be. A lot of writing chestnuts feel prescriptive to too many people—not everyone can write every day; sometimes, yes, you want to tell rather than show; passive voice isn’t inherently […]
SCRATCHING THE TENSION-JUNKIE ITCH: GIVING THE READER A REASON TO TURN PAGES
SCRATCHING THE TENSION-JUNKIE ITCH: GIVING THE READER A REASON TO TURN PAGES Why do people read? What makes someone stay up late, turning pages? The easy answer is curiosity. But all writers wrestle with how to create it. All writers toil to make it look effortless. Humans are tension junkies. We’ve survived through the […]
Thirst: On Writing, Harry, & Flying Jumbo Jets by Jo Nesbø (Excerpts)
What am I thinking when I set out to write a book? First of all, I think it’s impossible. It’s impossible to transform my thoughts and feelings into letters that can convey them to a reader without losing most of—and the most important parts of—their meaning. And it’s definitely impossible for these vague, sound-mimicking symbols to […]
What Can Sherlock Holmes Teach you about Writing? It’s all in the Clues…
What makes a Great Clue? Writing Lessons from Masters of Mystery Before I turned ten, I devoured The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes I read by myself but often I read out loud with my father, who loved Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and recited passages from memory with great dramatic flair. His favorite, and mine, was […]
The Long Shadow of Raymond Chandler…
The Long Shadow of Raymond Chandler… Raymond Chandler changed my life. I was assigned to read The Long Goodbye for class, and although only five chapters were assigned, I devoured the whole book in one night. As a young writer, I wasn’t sure what sort of stories I wanted to write, but Chandler’s prose, […]
Tweet This: Social Media Has a big impact on Nonfiction
Tweet This: Social Media Has a big impact on Nonfiction The benefit of writing a nonfiction mystery story this way is that you can transport the reader into the narrative so they get lost in its pages. One of the best techniques to draw the reader in is to paint a picture of what […]
The Balancing Act: Keeping Your Series Fresh for New and Existing Readers
The Balancing Act: Keeping Your Series Fresh for New and Existing Readers I have a photograph of myself taken years ago inside a hotel room in York, England, where I’m reading Peter Robinson’s novel In a Dry Season. To this day, it’s one of my all-time favorite mysteries. Peter had already written several Inspector Banks […]
Six Reasons You’re Not as Creative as You Could Be
Six Reasons You’re Not as Creative as You Could Be Years ago, I attended a writers’ conference. After my speech was over, I sat in on a talk given by a writing professor, and what she said has stayed with me ever since. A woman in the audience lamented that she wanted to write, […]
Creating Compelling Plots
Your Mission: Creating Compelling Plots Sheesh! Give me a more difficult question, please! I’ve been writing novels for over 30 years, and I can tell you how to be a soccer referee or fly an ILS approach to minimums, but explaining and taking apart plot requires some thought. But as all of us authors should […]
The Perverse Life of a Novelist
The Perverse Life of a Novelist The first time you get to experience something is so sweet. You feel exalted the first time you see a movie you love, like Groundhog Day, you see a play you love, like Hamilton, you see a show you love, like Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas, you read […]