Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! By an interesting coincidence, this is also Open Mic week; feel free to chat.
Read more →“Every scene must cause or lead into the next scene.” I ran across this particular bit of writing advice recently; it was followed by a couple of tips such as “cut any scene that isn’t caused by the scene immediately before it.” Wow, that means Ian M.
Read more →“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” ― W. Somerset Maugham I love that quote. I think of it whenever I’m faced with a would-be writer or critic who is waving a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of
Read more →There’s an adage about plot, probably originating in something John Gardner once said, to the effect that there are only two plots: either someone leaves on a journey, or a stranger comes to town. I think the more useful way of looking at this part of the
Read more →First, a couple of announcements. The audiobook of Sorcery and Cecelia is now available. Audiobooks for The Grand Tour and The Mislaid Magician will be coming in January; The Grand Tour is currently available for preorders. The second announcement is that in January I will be teaching a
Read more →Ultimately, plots are driven by the characters. Even when the main character is shipwrecked on a desert island and supposedly forced by this outside circumstance to struggle against nature, the character could simply give up and starve to death. Most writers don’t choose characters who would do
Read more →It doesn’t seem as if it’s been six weeks since the last Open Mic, but it has! So talk about what interests you.
Read more →One of the things I hate writing the most is what I refer to as “council scenes.” These are the scenes that involve a bunch of characters who are trying to solve a problem (or series of problems) by talking them to death, rather than bashing something
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