I get asked a lot about whether the characters in my stories are based on real people, and the answer is yes… and no, and for most writers, that’ll be true. A little piece of me is inside every character I write. It’s inevitable, because the characters are coming from me. As a writer, I’m…
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Setting is one of my favorite things to write in a novel. It’s like being a set designer for a movie or play, and it can add so much to your character and the tone of the story. Here are a few tips on how to use setting well in your own stories. Choose Locations…
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Did you ever finish a book and just want to dive back in, so you can stay in that world longer? Yeah, me too. A good book creates characters and a world that readers want to spend time in and return to again and again. There are so many fun parts of making up stories,…
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One of the questions I’m asked most is about writing process and the *best* way to write a book. The honest answer, though, is that there is no best way, only whatever works for you, and it’ll most likely change the more you write. Outlining is considered a dirty word by many writers. Some say…
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I’ve got characters on the brain. I’m preparing to teach my Throw More Stones: How to Build Character Through Conflict workshop for the Writers League of Texas next month, and it’s a subject I love to talk about. But developing characters was not always easy for me. The first novels I wrote had my characters…
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You’ve got an idea for a story. Yes! Congratulations? Now the fun begins. Ideas come in lots of different ways: just a title, an unusual character, a situation, or maybe even an entire story plops right in your lap (although this last one has never happened to me). When you get your idea, you might…
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Saturday marked the one month pre-versary of the release of THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST and there are so many thoughts running through my head and emotions in my heart. I’ve loved stories since I was a kid. I was obsessed with spending as much time as possible at the library. No amount…
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I’ve got a confession to make: I’ve become a bit addicted to Spider Solitaire. I started playing it as a way to clear my head between emails and writing, and social media and writing, and sometimes when writing just isn’t moving as well as I hoped and I wanted a nudge. If you read that last…
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Yep, that’s right. My debut novel, WAKE, is getting into its final shape. It’s been handed off to the fantastic copy editors at Simon & Schuster, and I feel like I’ve sent out my story to get fixed up for the prom. I’ve worked on this story, loved it and lived within it, since I…
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“Writing is such a diverse field with so many options and possibilities, it’s easy to choose the route with the immediate payoff, or the one that best strokes your ego, but if they don’t get you closer to what you want most, then it’s not worth your time.” — author Jennifer Nielsen I love this quote…
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