I will be on faculty for Florida Writers’ Association’s Mid-Winter Conference West and Reading Festival in Bradenton January 10-11, 2014. This two-day event features workshops for authors, publishers, and others; author interviews with agents and publishers; and the public reading festival. Writers will pay to register for workshops, but admission …
Category: Writing
Fiction Q&A: The importance of a likeable protagonist
Q: How important is it that the main character be likable at the beginning of the book? A: It is very difficult to engage readers if your protagonist is unlikable. Difficult, but not impossible, as Scarlett O’Hara demonstrates.
How to design your writer’s business card
A professional business card is the one thing you must have, especially when you are attending a conference. You do not want to be scribbling your contact info on Post-it notes or torn-out notebook pages. There are lots of places to buy business cards: any of the big-box office supply …
Sorting out characters and narrators
Last time, I said there are two kinds of POV: Narrator POV and Character POV, and I mentioned that each has some subsets. Here they are. Narrator POV The omniscient narrator knows everything and can share everyone’s thoughts, but doesn’t have to. He can, and often does, make value judgments …
What to take to a writers conference
Getting ready for a writers conference can be a little nerve-wracking, but it needn’t be. Conferences are important to your professional progress, but no one conference is a make-or-break experience. It’s just one link in the chain of your career. Still, you want to prepare. There’s a lot to do …
Eliminating the narrator
As we saw last week, the goal of deep point of view is to eliminate the narrator. Which means there are two primary choices for POV, each of which has some subsets: You can have a narrator, or not. In a novel with no narrator, the POV character takes on …
The difference between third person POV and Deep POV
Q: I keep hearing about Deep POV. What is it, and how is it different from what the writing books call third person POV? A: Point of view is one of the most complicated elements of fiction, and POV slips are among the most common errors we see in amateur …
How attending conferences helps your career
Attending writers conferences is one of the best things you can do for your writing career. There are many benefits to attending conferences: Learning in workshops and seminars Pitching to agents and editors Opportunities to get critiques Discovering new resources Befriending other writers This last item may be the most …
Why omniscient POV is not recommended
One of the most common errors we see in amateur manuscripts is POV slips, which occur when a writer who means to be writing in character POV includes something the POV character can’t know. For example, if you’re writing from the POV of a starship captain, you ought not put …
What the Rowling Experiment tells us about author platform
Every writer who’s ever attended a conference has cringed at being told to build platform. It seems especially difficult for novelists. A platform is simply the people who are willing to listen to you. It is, as Seth Godin says, permission. J.K. Rowling had permission from millions, and gave it …