A reader who’s known your characters for 3 pages will not sit still for a scene with 8 of them. Every new name is a small withdrawal from the reader’s attention. On page 12, they’re still deciding whether they like your protagonist; introduce a sister, 2 coworkers, and a bartender with a tragic backstory in…
After a lifetime on a farm in southern Ontario, Janet traded crops for creativity and began cultivating words instead of soil. Her journey from rural life to published author began with poetry, when her poem Follow the River won a contest at Creative Writing Institute. The Institute’s CEO, Deborah Owen, recognized her talent and invited Janet to…
Mysteries come in many different flavors, from cozies to hard-boiled detectives. So what unites all these disparate plots under one umbrella? All mysteries share 3 things in common A secret, unknown to both protagonist and reader, that poses a story question A protagonist in search of an answer to that story question Clues to allow…
To convince an agent or publisher your manuscript is one they should pay attention to, you need to have a great synopsis. Specific guidelines may vary, but as a rule of thumb, a synopsis is a one-page, double-spaced description of your entire story. It should be about 450 words. The goal is to give your…
90% of an author’s quality stems from skills they’ve learned, practiced, and perfected. (Only 10% is natural talent.) So if you feel like the quality of your writing over time looks like this: …It’s probably because you’re trying to learn from the wrong resources at the wrong times. Here are the two mistakes I see…
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