how to write a novel | how to write a novel

Oct.13.2012 The Butchertown Chronicles: First Draft FINISHING Around the first of September, my health shaky, my mind fluttering and befogged, I shuffled to the end of the first draft of my next novel Butchertown. I finished later than expected, figuring June or July. Didn’t happen. Butchertown is a gangster thriller set in 1922 in a...	Aug.22.2012 How to finish writing your novel and get it published Do you have a novel that still need your attention? A novel that you yearn to finish and sell via Redroom, Amazon Kindle store, Barnes and Noble, iBookstore etc? I do have one. I have been thinking a lot about it. I have come up with reasons why it has taken me so long to get complete it –...
Jul.07.2012 One Special Eye: The Necessary Uses of Copyeditors A couple weeks ago, on a site where some successful mystery writers gather to talk shop, one contributor made an astonishing assertion: Novelists don’t need to hire—for pay—copyeditors to do a final review of their book. All they need to do is have the writers in their affinity group, be it...	May.19.2012 Strong Opinion I guess I won’t be moving into that chateau on Lake Como next door to George Clooney anytime soon. I mean, I’d sure love to have genre writer James Patterson’s money. But I doubt I’d enjoy having to keep up his fertility rate. When I think about his huge output, I hearken back to my early...
Apr.25.2012 Can writing the novel be taught? "Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Whether or not someone else can teach you how to write a novel has been debated. The answer usually involves whether the question is asked by a teacher or a struggling, beginning writer. The teacher will say, yes, I can teach you...	Jul.15.2011 Give Me a Blank There is nothing that makes my fingers itch for a fountain pen quicker than quality stationery and blank note cards. All that empty space begs to be filled in with words and news and weather reports, questions, thanks, and anything else that occurs to me. With that in mind, I decided to subtly...
Nov.20.2009 How writers write I love this Wall St. Journal article about writers sharing their processes. Maybe it’s the onset of fall, the recent time change, or the fact that Mercury was in retrograde for a while — but I’ve found that this article has really resonated with fellow writers, not only for the insider’s view into...