Last month we began to look at premise development. I argued that developing a premise through writing a first draft is a natural practice, one that most authors follow. Yet a bit more attention to deepening one’s premise at the…

Last month we began to look at premise development. I argued that developing a premise through writing a first draft is a natural practice, one that most authors follow. Yet a bit more attention to deepening one’s premise at the…

Will you ever run out of story ideas? What a laughable question. Of course not! There are more stories in your cocktail napkin collection than you’ll be able to use. And new story ideas–? Just read the newspaper. Cull from…

What’s more important to you, entertaining your readers or revealing the truth of things? Both? Maybe, but your writing itself will tell me on which side of that divide your values predominantly lie. Entertainers often are unashamed. The harder they…

Do you research your novels to the point of obsession or do you not research at all?  Historical novelists are research junkies. Coming-of-age novelists mostly rely on memory. The majority of fiction writers fall somewhere in between: They study just…

Here’s a question for you: Who’s the superior writer, Jane Austen or Ernest Hemingway? If you answered Jane Austen then you probably write more emotionally, embracing exposition and characters’ interior lives. If you answered Ernest Hemingway then you may believe…

Know thyself. That advice was one of three dictums inscribed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, deservedly so. It’s a prime directive. And what subject is more absorbing than ourselves? Discovering who we are is a primary preoccupation of…

Ever had a change of fortune? Did you see it coming? Probably not. Windfalls are like that. Losses too. We’re taken by surprise. Suddenly we’re hurtling the wrong direction down the highway. Assumptions flip over. The world spins upside down.…

Some people have the knack. They’re easy to meet. We like them right away. Trust is instant. Talk flows without effort. They’re open. We feel like we know them after just a short while. Our kind of folks. Then there’s…

Do you like surprise parties? Watch videos of them and the reactions are almost always the same. As the victim enters there’s a loud, “Surprise!” The victim looks shocked. Her hands fly to her face. Her head shakes. “No, no,…

We have a deal. Sweet words. Unless you mean the U.S. debt ceiling. Anybody feel good about that one? What a bruising fight. What childish refusal to compromise. Everyone is sick and tired of our government, including our elected officials.…

Chances are that sometime recently you saw fireworks. Pasteboard tubes soared into the dark sky, erupting in sizzling blooms of strontium, lithium, calcium, sodium, barium, copper, cesium, potassium, rubidium, iron, aluminum. Spectators gasped, surprised every time. Trails of golden goddess…

“I know exactly what you’re talking about.” “Same thing happened to me.” “Oh yeah, been there.” So nice to know we’re not alone, isn’t it? Shared experience holds together family, friends, community, country, alliances. Don’t you wish folks in conflict…

Let’s talk about the dress. You know the one I mean. Months of speculation finally were satisfied last Friday when we glimpsed it at last, then studied it in detail as Kate Middleton slowly processed down the aisle of Westminster…

You can tell publishing professionals by the questions they ask.  Describe your novel to an agent or editor and their first question usually is, “Who’s your publisher?”  It’s like asking, “Where are you from?”  It doesn’t really matter, it’s just…

So many manuscripts achieve less than they could. Published novels too. As I read I often wonder what the author is afraid of. Do deadlines (real or self-inflicted) cut short the creative journey or are there paths in the woods…

What makes a person deeply fascinating?  Knowledge?  Mystery?  Complexity?  Command?  Allure?  Everyone’s answer is likely different, but I suspect there’s one quality that universally makes others absorbing to us: passionate engagement in life. Awake, aware, discerning, curious, compassionate, gripped, immersed…we…

If you like political theatre then the current situation in Washington probably strikes you as highly entertaining. Everyone’s angry. Everyone wants their way. Whatever your personal affinity, consider this central dilemma of our age: Everyone wants the best of everything…

Therese here. Today, we kick off our month of reader-Q-and-contributor-A, beginning with two reader questions answered by agent Donald Maass. Enjoy! Lin Wang asked: When starting a new novel, how do you turn your ideas (characters, images, phrases) into a…

I once heard an editor describe commercial fiction as “potato chip reads”. Have you ever actually eaten a giant bag of potato chips? Afterward, did you feel sick? Not just sick to your stomach but also faintly empty in spirit?…

Have you ever read an action packed thriller that left you breathless yet unmoved? Like a roller coaster, a thrilling ride but one that doesn’t seem to mean anything? Conversely, have you ever read a literary novel that was fatty…

Recently I was a guest in a movie star’s home in the Hollywood Hills. (Yeah I know, life as a literary agent is rough, isn’t it?) It was a many-acre fairy tale on some of the world’s most expensive real…

Last month I looked at how tension emerges on the page when apparently nothing is happening. The inverse of that is when high action hits with bullets whining, cars careening and explosions mushrooming. You’d think that high action would be…

This post by agent Donald Maass officially kicks off our month of “best advice” here at WU. Enjoy! Invisible Tension Don’t you hate it? Literary authors get to write these beautiful passages that are poison in commercial novels. You know…

I wonder if the researchers at the University of Pennsylvania who studied why certain articles in The New York Times online are e-mailed more frequently realize that they’ve unlocked for fiction writers the ultimate code: what creates word of mouth.…

My post last month sprang from research at the University of Pennsylvania into what causes online readers of The New York Times to e-mail articles to friends. Those researchers have done fiction writers a huge favor. They have decoded what…

Who spreads stories and why? Sociologists at the University of Pennsylvania have been studying data provided by The New York Times showing which of the paper’s articles are the most often e-mailed. Their conclusions have some relevance for fiction writers…

Agent Donald Maass is here today to kick off our month long discussion on Voice. —– Voice…or Volume? Voice in fiction is a term poorly defined. What does it mean? Style? Subject matter? Sensibility? World view? All of the above?…

Bigness by Donald Maass What makes a novel feel big? It isn’t a function of length, setting or theme. Some of the smallest manuscripts I’ve read were the longest. War stories and epic sagas don’t necessarily have much to say.…