Writing Well

Learning to Write by Writing

First Person – Muting MY Voice

| September 3, 2011

I love writing in first person. My two favorite manuscripts are written first person. My favorite one is written first person male and that lead character is my favorite son. He’s also head strong, opinionated, and difficult to manage, but that’s another post! Writing in first person comes with inherent risks. It’s such a turn [...]

Story Element: Point of View

| May 21, 2011

One of the first things every writer has to decide when starting a new novel is point of view. Who among their characters will be telling the story? Learn about four points of view.

What Are You Telling Your Readers?

| May 7, 2011

In a previous post, I talked about finding the voice of my writing as a body of work and for each individual story. This time, I’d like to talk about finding the message of a story. It may seem like voice and message are the same, but they are not. Closely linked, yes, but not [...]

Developing Author Voice

| March 26, 2011

I can tell you a writer’s voice and an artist’s style are very close to the same thing. An artist doesn’t usually set out to develop a certain style, it just happens. Case in point. I began painting pictures of horses in grade school and sold my first portrait in high school. All I wanted [...]

Voice versus Message

| September 15, 2010

In the last post, I talked about finding the voice of my writing as a body of work and for each individual story. This time, we’re discussing finding the message of a story. It may seem like voice and message are the same, but they are not. Closely linked, yes, but not the same. The [...]

Story Element: Desire

| August 18, 2010

Many factors go into writing a powerful, successful story. Strong and interesting characters. A compelling plot. Conflict, obstacles and a strong, believable resolution. What is the most important factor? There are as many answers to that question as there are authors and writers. I can sum up the most important thing to my stories  in [...]

Story Element: Message

| August 1, 2010

With this article, I begin discussing something it took me a long time to get a firm grasp of. Sometimes, I still despair of ever fully understanding the process of finding the message for a new novel. Let me begin by saying one of my favorite authors is the Scottish writer, George MacDonald. I first [...]