Social Media Ideas for Novel Writing

5 Novel-Writing Tricks That Will Make Your Screenplay Better

Novelists and screenwriters often fight the same battles, even though their end products differ.Whatever you’re writing, you’ll want a premise that’s easy to pitch with a catchy ho...

Novel Writing Workshop with Acclaimed Author Preston Allen

PEMBROKE PINES, FL — South Florida’s aspiring authors can turn their book ideas into page-ready stories at “Novel Writing 101: Preparation, Research & Review,” a free, one-day...

On Writing

“I love writing. I love the swirl of words as they tangle with human emotions.”--James MichenerFor 100s more On Writing posts, go here.The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to...

Detective Novel Magazine Publicity

My third soft-cover detective novel is almost ready for release, and its unusual musical twist deserves national attention. The mission is clear: land a full-length feature in a wi...

The Summer I Finally Reread My Own Novel

For 3 years, my novel lived in a folder on my laptop called "old tax stuff." This summer, I finally reread it. The post The Summer I Finally Reread My Own Novel appeared first on...

On Writing

“Writing is its own reward.”--Henry MillerFor 100s more On Writing posts, go here.The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling is a...

On Writing

“Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery. The adventure is a metaphysical one: it is a way of approaching life indirectly, of acquiring a total rather than a partial vi...

On Writing

“Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery. The adventure is a metaphysical one: it is a way of approaching life indirectly, of acquiring a total rather than a partial vi...

Writing My Historical Novel on a Vintage Typewriter, a guest post by Anna Rose Johnson

Using a typewriter forced me to do something I hadn’t when writing my previous novels: it forced me to just plow ahead, to not agonize over particular lines or go back and change t...

New Life For Novellas?

by James Scott Bell One of the all-time crime classics, cited by most noir aficionados when such lists come out, is James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. From its grabber...

Writing for Short Attention Spans

by James Scott Bell My new Romeo thriller, Romeo’s World, is live today. Like all the others, it does not have chapters. It has scenes, as long or short as they need to be. Each sc...

Romantic Suspense Fiction Writer

I have a collection of outlined plotlines and character sketches for a web-based romantic suspense series and need a skilled wordsmith to turn those notes into gripping, polished e...

What Should You Write Next?

by James Scott Bell Last week we talked about creativity, and getting ideas through the “What if?” game. I’ve always subscribed to the notion that the best way to get a great idea...

How I Accidentally Wrote Another Plotting Guide While Writing My First Mystery

When I set out to write my first-ever murder mystery—about a group of mystery writers who get trapped at a mystery-writing conference and people start turning up dead—I felt an eno...

‘A powerful act of imagination and self-affirmation’: experts on how to start writing a book

Thinking about writing a book and doing it are two very different things – so how to get started and follow through? At some point in their lives, many people are confronted with a...

Could Orwell’s Novel-Writing Machine Actually Write a Good Novel?

If masses of data could be collected and organized according to rules, formula fiction could be automated. Source

Pantser or Plotter: How Poe, Christie, King, and Other Greats Outlined Their Mysteries

I’m currently stuck in the bog of plot and planning. I’ve been here for a week trying to outline my next murder mystery/fantasy mash up. Being a plotter (and being horrified by the...

On Writing

"I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and ac...

Decluttering the Thriller Novella

by Debbie Burke Recently I was talking offline with Justin, a regular TKZ reader. He’s currently editing his thriller novella and asked how to “declutter” it. Great question! Novel...

Alchemy

I’m aware most authors use Word documents for their first drafts, but I always write mine on the dim-lit landscapes of my evening walks. Maybe it’s why they’re so full of introspec...

Writing the Senses: How to Balance Descriptions with Brevity

By April Dávila When I started writing my second novel, I decided to open the story with my main character being born in a storm. I imagined the trees thrashing in the wind and rai...

Still No NaNo

How I “Accidentally” Wrote Myself into My Murder Mystery

For the past twenty years, my life has run on two parallel tracks—writing novels and teaching others how to write novels. On the writing side, I’ve written over 20 novels for reade...

On Writing

“You write until the rust comes out of the faucet and it’s clear water. Then you write down the clear water.”--Lin-Manuel MirandaFor 100s more On Writing posts, go here.For 100s mo...