I would like to thank the students of Melony Kempf’s classes for being so engaged and interested in my talk this morning at Pflugerville Middle School. I had fun and hope you all did too. I talked about how I started writing when I was a little kid and wrote Read more…
Do prologues work or are they just authors marking time? I added a prologue to GWIII and brought it to my writer’s group for their perusal. Here’s what I heard: “lacks urgency.” “Needs to start earlier at a more crucial moment.” “Characters aren’t engaged.” And my favorite — “It’s a Read more…
Salon’s Laura Miller has an excellent article about what readers look for in a compelling novel. Published writers and aspiring writers can learn much from this column. I especially liked this bit: 3. The components of a novel that readers care about most are, in order: story, characters, theme, atmosphere/setting. Read more…