Category Archives: Voice
Writing Better Dialogue
Have you ever read a book or watched a movie where the dialogue has been so beautifully written that you are in that moment, experiencing the character’s emotions and hanging on to their every word? Or you know exactly what … Continue reading
Improve Your Novel Writing: 11 Tips For Newbies
Writing a novel is flipping difficult. It often takes years to complete your first novel (and even more years after that to write a good one). You heard that right — writers’ first books are usually a hot mess. That … Continue reading
Writers, Remember: The Wand Chooses The Wizard
When we choose a writing career, naturally we want to find our footing quickly. But this can cause us to pay too much attention to what other authors are doing in hopes of finding the magic of success. Michelle Barker … Continue reading
Rules? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Rules
After we’ve been writing for a while, we’ve heard our share of writing rules. Sometimes we’re taught to avoid certain techniques, like prologues. Or we might be told that some storytelling approaches are too risky, such as using second-person point … Continue reading
The Mother Lode of First Page Resources
As many of you know, I run a monthly critique contest here at the blog, where I offer to read first pages and share my feedback. People are so grateful to win, but I have to ask: who’s the real … Continue reading
Where’s Your Edge?
Some of my most enjoyable teaching experiences were with my friends Donald Maass and Christopher Vogler doing Story Masters, a four-day immersion in the craft of fiction. For my day of instruction, I started off showing a clip from the … Continue reading
Diversifying Your Characters’ Voices
“Voice” is one of the things we authors agonize over—finding the character’s unique and authentic way of speaking. It’s especially critical to get this right when we’re writing in multiple viewpoints, so each character sounds like him or herself and … Continue reading