In the Write

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently published a study on reading. It confirms what most teachers and librarians already know. Kids read less and less.  The stats show a particularly alarming drop among teenagers.  They spend more time on the internet and less time with the printed word (duh). Dana Gioia, the NEA […]

When it comes to writing description the first question is simple:  Is  there enough?  Too much?  The goal is have just enough crisp, clear description in order to set the scene in the reader’s head–so they can “see it.”  Ah, but you’re not done.  Yes we need to see, but we also need to hear, […]

If you don’t have time to read novels, why not short stories?  The really good kind. Fiction, as Poe advised, “that can be read in one sitting.”  That was his definition of the short story form. And it’s a still a good one. A great place to find good short stories in is the yearly […]

“If you want to be a writer, you gotta be a reader,” someone (me) once said.  But who has the time to do both?  Here’s a solution that works for me. When I’m stuck on a novel–frozen up, blocked, or otherwise suffering a complete loss of confidence –I get my ass to a library.  Preferably […]

Right now is perhaps the worst time in my memory for publishing a novel.  That is, for a mainstream print publisher to  pay you and produce a print version of your novel.  The “Big Six publishers” in New York City are offering fewer print titles and paying their best-selling authors more. This leaves crumbs for […]

Your reader at some point needs facts, background, and foundational material. In the writing biz we call this Exposition in fiction. The trick is to weave exposition into your ongoing narration in a smooth, even sly way.  Let’ call that “on the fly.” Slipping in crucial information without losing your story line.  Let’s  look at […]

Well, let’s look on the bright side.  At least you have one.  Or part of one.  Most would-be writers only think about writing a novel, but you’ve actually done it.  Sort of.  Which is why you’re freaking out right now?  As in, “Where do I go from here?”  As in, “I’m totally lost!”  As in, […]

  After having a dozen novels published by New York houses, I should know better than to make this mistake. But it just happened to me. I have a New York editor for my young adult fiction. He and I had talked about a certain “hook” for boy readers, a story idea that I brought […]

You can call yourself a writer if you have a need to write. That need can come from different places:  joy, sorrow, love, past trauma.  But the need does not come from here!  Blogs. Twitter. Snapchat. Instagram. Tumblr and a hundred other social media, informationally overloaded, time-sucking pleasures of the internet.  Cumulatively, the effect of our […]

 I object to obvious cultural appropriations and misuse such as “Chief Wahoo”(Cleveland Indians) and other insults to Native Americans such as the feather head-dress photo at top. I confess I didn’t think much about Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the old “Howdy Doody” show, but I was a tot then. Today the worm has turned, and […]

Say you’ve been through several drafts of a short story or even a novel. One of the final aspects of close revision should be about your  syntax. Huh?  What’s that?  Syntax is all about your sentences. It asks you to take a very close look at your prose and how it flows. “Syntax,” defined, often […]

Once you publish a novel or two, your life changes. What used to be a solitary life now becomes public.  You start to get invitations to come and say something about yourself and your writing. Invitations to speak span a big range. Small book clubs in living rooms.  Keynoting a library convention. Addressing an auditorium […]