Write at the Light

Amazon.com WidgetsAt a party the other night, I asked a writer working on his first novel what kind of novel it was. He said it was a romance, and he said it with that self-deprecating expression that makes you know that he expects you to sneer. I told him that I thought romance was a [...]

A lot of fiction suffers because the author mishandles showing versus telling. Both are necessary in a piece of writing. Showing is what brings the reader into the midst of the action and makes the reader feel what the character is feeling. There are times, however, when it’s wise to skip lightly over events that [...]

Point of view. It’s so easy and yet so hard. It’s easy, because it’s just first person, second person (which is never to be used), third person. Pick one. Write. But it’s more complicated than that, because they branch into alternatives, and the rules can be broken effectively. Third person can be omniscient, change from [...]