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Or, “Memoirist, Narrow Thy Focus.” An old buddy of mine from the Marines sent me a message the other day. He asked me about writing, and if I had ever considered writing a book about our old unit. This friend said that he was interested in writing, but he didn’t know where to start. Many…

History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, is my favorite novel of the year so far. For some perspective, here is my book list. It’s October. Last year, I read 59 books. It seems hard to imagine reaching that number this year. I mean, there’s just no way. I’m okay with that. I can’t expect to…

What is the difference, you may wonder, between literary writing and genre writing? Or, you may wonder, how do I ensure that when I look for an agent, or when I submit to literary magazines, that my work is recognized as literary rather than genre? The answer is in the prose. If you’re writing genre…

Hi everyone Apologies for the long period of silence, I had a lot of trouble with Stephen King’s people after my last post (read it here). This post, be forewarned, is not as juicy as Stephen King’s Steroid Secrets. Instead, I offer you a bit of news about my professional life. All summer, my agent…

Let’s talk Stephen King–and why I think his career is suspicious. King suggests a daily routine of about three hours writing, three hours reading, and one long walk per day—a routine that is very difficult for an all-natural writer to sustain year-round. While it is possible that Mr. King is natural, I have extreme doubts.…

No, endings are not as difficult or mysterious as everyone makes them out to be. I don’t say that they are easy. No stage of novel-writing is necessarily easy. But I think writers and professors are too quick to throw up their hands and say, “endings are just hard.” No, no, no, no! They aren’t…

In my previous post, I talked about how Interruption can make your scenes more interesting. Today I’ll be talking about another method for giving your scenes shape, complexity, and realism: a device I call “Occupation.” This is an unimaginative name, because Occupation just means giving your characters something to do. I’ll show you my favorite…

Write Better Scenes, pt. 1 There’s an axiom in novel writing: “Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.” Making them wait could be the most important part of the equation. Related axiom: “Write the boring parts quickly, write the exciting parts slowly.” If you know that you are in an exciting scene, SLOW…