What Are “Book Time” and “Reader Time”?

Is a novel that takes place in one day long, or short? Is a 200,000-word novel long, or short? What if you’re James Joyce, and Odysseus, your 265,000-word novel, takes place over one day? There are different kinds of time in fiction. I call them book time and reader time. First, there’s book time: the […]

Writing Outside the Block

This week’s post is a mess–but that’s kind of the point. Breaking your writer’s block doesn’t have to look pretty.

What to Look for in a Critique Group

Whether you’re joining a group or starting your own, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. Online? In person? A range of veterans to novices, or a group of peers? Once a week? Once a month?

In this article, we’ll ask the questions every critique group must ask—and give you the tools you need to answer them.

9 Reasons to Join a Critique Group

What if you could have a whole group of people meet regularly to analyze your manuscript, for free? Sound too good to be true? It isn’t. It’s called a critique group.

What If I’m a Bad Writer?

“The night was dark.”

Yes, that was a real opening line. And the author had no clue how bad it was.

Is there hope for bad writers? Or is writing simply a matter of talent?

Don’t Write for Yourself

If you are writing for yourself, it doesn’t matter if you had three typos on page 43, or that chapter four is a bit redundant, or that your protagonist doesn’t make a strong first impression. None of that matters. What matters was the experience you had while writing it. But as soon as you start querying agents or put an e-book up on Amazon, everything changes.

As soon as that happens, you’re no longer writing for yourself.