Here is the dialogue test: Give a reader a sentence taken from the dialogue in your book manuscript. Ask him or her to identify which character said which sentence. It should be obvious. Characters speak in dialogue that has a definitive and unique flavor. A…
Whose story is it? Which character is giving the reader the gateway into the book? Decide early. Trust me, it saves hours of rewriting. Usually, the story is told from the protagonist’s point of view. We want our readers to empathize with…
Reluctant to Start? You have an idea. You want to write a book. You are almost afraid to start. You’ve decided which age level you want as your audience. Now what? Once you know what you want to write–fiction, nonfiction, history, adventure–and who your target…
Stories share structural frames. Readers expect a certain framework. Stories have characters, a setting and some kind of plot. Somebody, somewhere, does something. The stories we had read to us children, whether they were about pirates, rabbits or toads, likely revealed a structure of beginning,…
Why would anyone read our books? Because they want to participate in the world we create. Readers will read our books with the passion of a collector if they feel an emotional connection to our characters, and they care about them. They care when…