Ahhh, the “middle child”—overlooked, underappreciated, less exciting… at least, according to the Brady Bunch. Still, Jan Brady’s “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha…” struck a chord of truth with…
People love stories that come in episodes—just ask the writers of television. But while television tends to be the most popular outlet for episodic fiction these…
Writing can be a tough job but you know what’s even more difficult? Self-diagnosing what’s not working in your novel. Maybe you’ve sent it to beta…
At the heart of every well-told story is a solid foundation known as story/narrative arc. Most stories are structured with clear beginnings, middles, and ends. The…
If you’ve ever dabbled in screenwriting, you may know that screenplays have a unique advantage in structure over novels: the manuscripts are divided into scenes. For…
Last week we talked about novel structure and why it’s important. You might be wondering how structure should fit into your writing and editing process. Because…
As you work on committing a complete draft of your novel to paper (or hard drive), you may have to wrestle with its structure. Readers expect…
What’s the difference between the books that make the New York Times Bestsellers list and the books that do not? More often than not it comes…