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 [...]

Crime fiction is big business at the moment, but there are certain situations that have been overplayed so much that they have become genre cliches and everybody knows what to expect next. Here are ten cliches you should try to avoid and thoughts on how to subvert the cliches if you [...]

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: [...]

Just because the story requires much persuasion to be developed does not mean that you have picked a non-runner – it always requires yet another week’s work to make persistence pay.

Some writers claim they can sit down with a good idea for a novel and bash away until it’s finished. It takes an extraordinary mind to do that. Most of today’s writers will tell you that they prepare a framework, a synopsis, from which to generate their 100,000 or so words. Here’s a suggested system [...]

As writers, you and I have many people in some way responsible for our successes or failures as writers. Be aware of professional relationships that improve your writing and opportunities. Successful writers build their work on skills, hard work, study, and help from others.
Choose editors, copy editors, and other networking relationships whose abilities and [...]

A man came to me last week because he needed help writing his book. He told me that he’s had this project on his to-do list for years, but he just couldn’t seem to get started. He’s literally been staring at the task-start writing my book-almost every day, and when he came to me, he [...]

As the word is being used here, “hedge” means to qualify your statements, express them as opinions, or tell the reader that you are not confident in what you are writing.
In the following sample statements, the writer demonstrates his lack of confidence:

“I think the ball is about to explode.”
“If I understand the instructions correctly, the [...]

Are there any writers out there who don’t want to make money from writing? Who don’t want to earn a living from their writing? Who don’t want to become rich from their writing?
Well, there probably are. And that’s fine. But this article isn’t for them. This article is for you. You who knows that you [...]

It’s been said that you should “write about what you know”. It’s also been said that doing that condemns you to a life of boredom as you’ll never grow beyond your current limitations. Not very helpful, is it?