Nail Your Novel

Review of
Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris
British author and writing teacher Roz Morris has a new book out just in time to help you with that first draft of your new novel. You know, the one you’re going to write in November for National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo.
Hiccups in your [...]

Plot Enhancers

In parts 1 & 2, I discussed 8 ways to plot. This last plotting idea is about deepening and extending the effectiveness of a plot.
9. Success Plot Enhancers.
There are two books which stand out, not for their overall structure of a novel, but for deepening the impact of a novel:

YWriter

While my WIP novel is out with readers, I thought I’d look at my process for this novel and how it differed from others.
Writing Process for Novels Vary Widely
Writing process varies. First, my process was different for this novel. I find this to be always true, that what worked for one novel, won’t work for [...]

Voice Trumps Everything

My WIP novel has hit a snag. I was just writing along, following the plot I outlined, concentrating on using strong scenes this time, when I came to a curious section.
Choosing a Point of View Character
Here the main character (MC) needs to be housebound because of a flu epidemic. But the plot requires several events [...]

P.J. Hoover: Class of 2K8

This is part of a year-long series about those intrepid newcomers, The Class of 2k8. To help marketing efforts for debut novelists, these 28 novelists have banded together to create a group marketing effort.
PJ Hoover: Class of 2K8

My Writing Space
My writing space didn’t use to exist. Grand two-story entries were all the rage when [...]

Shakespeare Helps You Write a Better Picture Book

This entry is part 9 of 32 in the series 30 DAYS TO A STRONGER PICTURE BOOK For several years, this series on writing a picture book has been available free on this site. It’s now available altogether as a 110 page pdf file, How to Write a Children’s Picture Book.
Image via Wikipedia
When you’re thinking [...]

Revising the Outline

When do you start revising your novel? I start by revising the first draft of my novel’s plot outline, synopsis or treatment.
Revise Early and Late
As soon as I’ve written the first sketchy outlines of a novel, I’m revising. I’m looking for many things:

Does the climax resolve the setup?
Are the main characters together in [...]

5 Resources for First Drafts of Novels

Need help on the first draft of your novel? Here are some great resources.

Planning or Outlining: Many revision techniques found here can also be invention techniques for those first drafts. As I’m working on my first draft of a new novel, I’m finding that many of the same techniques are helpful.
For example, [...]