Words on Writing

Before I started writing novels, I thought plot was all that mattered. But after writing enough attempted manuscripts, I learned reality had little interest in my theories. Readers don't care about plot nearly as much as I thought they did—at least not just plot on its own. What they actually care about is people. Plot is merely the thing happening to those people. In this episode of Words on...

I spent years writing my first book: editing, finding mistakes, and correcting endless more mistakes. Eventually, I published it, assuming the hard part was over. It wasn't. I thought publication was the finish line. It turned out to be the starting pistol.

When you're starting out, you don't know enough to recognizewhich advice matters. You hear it. You nod thoughtfully. Then, if you’re like me, you ignore it completely. Years later, you rediscover it and realize somebody was trying to save you an enormous amount of trouble. Here are six pieces of writing advice I wish I hadn't ignored.

I've published two novels, with a third on the way. I've also spent enough time around writers to notice that most successful authors' careers are built from activities too dull to survive contact with a YouTube thumbnail. In this episode of Words on Writing, James Dunlop, author of the Andrew MacKay thrillers, discusses the things that make author careers, which are often not talked a...

Most advice about endings focuses on resolution. Did the hero succeed? Was the mystery solved? Did the plot deliver on its promises? Those things matter, but they're rarely what readers remember. More often, readers finish a novel with avague sense of satisfaction or disappointment they struggle to articulate. The reason, I suspect, is that every story is really solving two different problems.

Everyone wants artistic success to involve rare creative ecstasy and dramatic bursts of genius. Writing two books taught me that it comes down to discipline. You eventually end up holding a finished book, which feels almost surprising given how consistently the process resembled low-levelclerical work performed under mild psychological strain.

Advanced description problems are harder to diagnose than beginner ones. The prose sounds good, which makes writers protective of it. Unfortunately, readers don’t award bonus points for decorative suffering. Here's how you can create details that imply entire worlds, rather than extremely confident wallpaper.

In self-publishing, reviews matter. They influence readers, visibility, and your mood more than is sensible. One thoughtful review can buoy your week. One odd complaint can have you pacing around with a cup of hot coffee and a keyboard under threat of serious bodily harm. Here's how to survive the opinion market.

What writing advertising campaigns taught me about writing faster without writing worse.

Most self-publishing advice is practical. All of it's useful. Some of it even works. But self-publishing isn’t just a logistical exercise. It’s an emotional one. Here's some advice for dealing with that.

These are the mistakes that feel like progress because they look like writing. They resemble depth, intelligence,emotional weight. Unfortunately, they’re the narrative equivalent of being an Amazon page of shiny fire extinguishers distracting you from the house actually burning down around you. Here's how to deal with them.

Unless your write a runaway bestseller (the equivalent to winning the lottery but with considerably worse odds) one book is just a business card. A career is a stack of them. You don’t have to write the single greatest novel in the history of literature. But to build a career, you do have to keep writing.  

Here, are several things I learned about plot,almost all of them later than would have been ideal. The next time one of your stories stalls, you might be able to recognise the problem slightly faster. And, with luck, fix it before draft three.

Most self-published books fail, no spectacularly. There are no bonfires of Goodreads reviews. They simply appear, make a small polite noise, and then disappear to live out their days alongside abandoned blogs, unused Pelotons, and the author’s brief conviction that the launch just needed “a bitmore time.” Here’s why that keeps happening.

In this episode of Words on Writing, James Dunlop, author of the Andrew MacKay thrillers, explores why villains are often the weakest part of a story and how a good villain is often the character that does most of the work to drives yournarrative forward. If you’re writing a story, this video might help you find ways to take your villain from pure evil but ineffective to more something that keeps...

I think if you want to write a novel, you should know what you’re in for. Here are some rather uncomfortable but brutally honest truths I learned when I started writing fiction.   Writing’s

There’s a curious question that wakes a lot off writers at about 2:17 AM: Is there a market for this? The question arrives wearing sensible shoes, possibly holding a clipboard. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t accuse you of being delusional. It simply raises an eyebrow and asks whether you’ve considered the commercial viability of your fragile, half-formed idea.

We explore how making a protagonist a traditional hero wouldcan feel dishonest. And, more importantly, dull.

You smooth an edge here so the reader won’t flinch. You explain a motivation there so no one gets confused. You add context, sympathy, backstory. Still, your book seems to lack a pulse. It’s often nothing wrong with what’s happening. The problem most likely is who it’s happening to.

Most self-published books don’t lose readers in the writing. Because most never make it past the first glance. Here’s how to stop that from happening.

If you want to build a main character readers will follow throughchaos, humiliation, and poor decision-making, Homer Simpson is a masterclass in how it’s done.

Editing is where you take your book from emotionalsupport project to a functional piece of narrative machinery, from ambitious pile of narrative compost. to polished novel. It isn't always easy; it does require strategy. Here are 10 more suggestions I think can help.

The book blurb is has to whisper, seduce, threaten, reassure, and gently shove a stranger toward a purchase. In this episode we explore how you can possibly summarize your entire 90,000-word masterpiece in under 200 words, without panicking.

Squint past the silly tights and soliloquies, and you’ll see the Bard is all about suspense: murder, betrayal, ambition. In this episode we'll look at how you can channel Shakespeare to get all the tension without the tights.

Here is a draft-to-disaster recovery plan to help you take a first draft of confused syntax and unnecessary sentences, and turn it into the story you meant to write.