Everyone has a story to tell, and unfortunately those stories aren’t always pleasant. What makes memoirs and other personal stories of recovery and triumph so appealing is that struggle is universal. And writing about it is one way - a great way - to make sense out of what troubles you the most.

You’ve probably reflected on your overall temperament and how it impacts your relationships. For instance, you have some idea about what kind of friend you are, what kind of parent or sibling or spouse or significant other. But have you ever thought about what kind of writer you are?

You write because you have something to say. Your writing needs the flavor and character that only you can give. How do you achieve a distinctive touch and flavor for your writing?
The guiding principle is focus and the starting point is to know the essential focal points that save time and agonizing self-examination. I show [...]

Flashbacks can usefully be employed to create suspense in a story, or develop a character. By interjecting something from the past that has a bearing on the present, tension and conflict can be heightened.

Writing is like any other skill in that you have to do a lot of it to get better. There isn’t any way around that, but you can identify mistakes common to new writers and learn to stop making them before they become habit.

Good writing requires good manners. This is especially true when a writer wants the reader to take some action or agree with some opinion. However, if you offend your readers, they probably won’t do what you tell them to do. In fact, one of the easiest ways to offend your readers is to tell them [...]

I am usually very reticent about offering writing tips. Unless they are linked to the absolute, inescapable fundamental principles of good writing, such tips are too often poorly applied or misapplied.
There is really only a handful of fundamental writing principles. Before this extraordinary tip can be properly revealed, we need to review three of them: [...]

Most people have seen the character worksheets that encourage writers to identify everything from shoe size and favorite food to sexual turn ons and turn offs. And while knowing your character’s most treasured possession might come in handy, it won’t tell you how your character will react when disaster strikes.
For that, you really need to [...]

Often when we are editing, we come across sentences that we can revise in several ways. When we cannot easily select a particular revision, we employ a strategy we call R & R, which stands for “Rephrase and Replace.”

Most stories we write take place over a period of time. That time may be very short - even a few minutes; or long - over several years or generations or anywhere in between. But whatever it is, the reader needs to have a clear sense of how time is moving throughout the narrative.
Place your [...]