So what about reviews? If you get a good one—from a stranger, not your mom—it’s cause for major celebration: dancing around the room, busting out the champagne, wildly bursting into a song from The Sound of Music. But if you get a bad one, well, nothing can ruin your day faster. Now that your baby, aka […]
In Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Janet Burroway describes point of view (POV) as “the most complex element of fiction.” She’s right. Choosing and managing POV requires constant attention to the delicate relationship between reader, author, and character. And maintaining consistency can challenge even seasoned writers.
Writers often speak in metaphors, especially when discussing our craft. We sculpt stories like clay, carve them like wood, and paint pictures with prose. We talk about composing musical dialogue. The phrase “honing your craft” is so common in writing workshops—and other creative fields—that most people forget “hone” originally referred to a whetstone, a literal […]
To the untrained ear, the term head-hopping might sound like something related to home-brewed beer. But in the world of professional fiction editing, head-hopping refers to a common mistake made by writers who haven’t fully grasped the conventions of point of view (POV).
In […]
Copyright can be a confusing and often intimidating subject. This is not a comprehensive legal guide, but it will set the record straight on a few key points every writer should understand.
In the United States, copyright is a form of legal protection granted to “authors of ‘original works of authorship,’ including literary, dramatic, […]
[by Ross Browne]
It wasn’t all that long ago that the news hit Hollywood that Matt Damon was considering bowing out of his leading role as Jason Bourne. The untitled film he considered passing on would have been the fifth in a series based on a trilogy that we have Robert Ludlum to […]
