The Debut Dagger is a crime writing competition sponsored by the Crime Writers’ Association. According to Liz Evans, contest chair, 18 Dagger entrants have landed publishing contracts since the annual competition began in 1998. The bad news: If you’ve already had a novel published commercially–in any genre–you can’t enter. The good news: If your entry … Read more
I’ve discovered a new word for “interactive fiction” and a contest to go with it: mifiction. By definition, mifiction is interactive fiction written for the youth market, mainly young people aged 14-24 years. My children read something like this in the Eighties, little stories written in second person and printed on cheap paper: You are … Read more
The art of reporting speech in writing, that is. There are a few writers whom I really admire for their skill in dialog: John le Carré and Elmore Leonard. Two very different writers, but their work contains a common element; the ability to place a character in social context with just a few words. Le … Read more
David writes: I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on how to flow from sentence to sentence. I feel mine can be a bit jumpy as I tell the story. Much is written about “transition sentences,” that is, sentences that bridge paragraphs, but that’s not what this question is about. This question is … Read more
A reader writes about a problem she is having with a friend who is critiquing her manuscripts. . . . whenever I use personification, alliteration, or any sort of figurative language, [the friend] edits it out. We have two very different styles, and I’m wondering if she is right in editing my work so drastically … Read more
Sterlin writes: My girlfriend says plots are “a dime a dozen,” but I feel different. I am trying to write my story and I am loaded with themes, but no plot, nothing to drive the themes or story. Can you offer any tips or techniques for devising a plot? In one sense the girlfriend is … Read more
In this post I want to deal with some miscellaneous questions that have come to me via email. Subject Line Several readers have asked if I could put the day’s topic in the subject line of the subscription feed. I regret that the answer is: I can’t. The way that the subscriptions are handled (Feedburner) … Read more
The votes are in and the winners announced for the Second DWT Short Story Competition. Congratulations to winner Violet Toler and runner-up Easton Miller. Your stories pleased many readers. Contests are rough on writers. If we enter and don’t win, it’s very hard to shake the feeling that our writing isn’t any good. Possibly it … Read more
In the parlance of fiction writing, a character tag is a repetitive verbal device used to identify a character in the mind of the reader. More than a simple description, a character tag calls to mind aspects of the character’s personality and uniqueness. Uriah Heep’s clammy hands, his constant hand rubbing, and his use of … Read more
One of the advantages of belonging to a writers’ group is that every member has different strengths and areas of expertise. As a result, we are continually learning from one another. For example, I learned about Deep POV (Point of View) from one of my colleagues. I was already familiar with First Person, Third Person, … Read more
The prologue is a legitimate story-telling device, but many readers admit that when they see the word “Prologue,” they skip at once to the page that begins with the words “Chapter One.” Sometimes a prologue is the ideal way to present information essential to the reader’s understanding of the story. Mystery writers, for example, often … Read more
I’m always learning from readers’ comments. Something I learned recently is that not all writers agree that reading Dickens is a good thing. Dickens is not my favorite 19th century novelist–George Eliot is–but I think that modern writers can learn a lot about scene structure and the management of multiple characters and subplots from reading … Read more