Hope for the Holidays
Writers and other artists seem to me to be the purveyors of hope. That’s what art so often is. The…
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Fixing Flat Characters and Flat Stories
It’s tempting to think in terms of good or bad, clear-cut categorizations and blanket judgments; it’s tidy and orderly and…
When Should You Hire an Editor?
If you’d like to receive my blog in your in-box each week, click here. Editors have a few inside jokes that…
Cohesion: The Key to Powerful Story
A key issue I often see in stories that aren’t quite working as well as they could is that no…
The Glass Is Always Full
This holiday that inspires reflection on what we are grateful for always makes me think of an exchange my husband…
How to Cook Up Original Stories
I’ve never really developed cooking and baking as significant hobbies, despite my enjoyment of these crafts, because I’m mediocre at…
Luck and the Ladder of Life
It’s humbling, and sometimes discouraging, to imagine that regardless of what we may put into our careers (or anything else),…
Interactive Storytelling and Extended Reality: The Future of Fiction?
VP of Immersive Content Innovation Vicki Dobbs Beck spoke at UT-Austin recently on how Lucasfilm/ILM is working to pioneer immersive…
Is Fear the Artist’s Foe—or Friend?
Fear is an unhealthy self-awareness where you’re so in your head, while simultaneously so minutely observing yourself from an external…
Should You Write “to the Market”?
Knowing what you want in this business is one of the most important factors in creating a writing career that…
“Seeing Myself *Like* Myself Is Pretty Damn Good”
It’s always a little surprising when we hear that people we admire, or who have achieved success by standard metrics,…
How to Talk to Anyone about Your Writing (or Anything)
Whether it’s at writing events with other authors, or you’re pitching your work to agents and editors, or talking about…