Auto Draft

If you’ve been reading this column for any length of time, if you’ve been my student in a class or workshop, if you’ve heard me lecture about the art and craft of writing, you know I consider characterization the single most important element of good fiction. You are entitled to another [...]

The Tangled Web We Weave

Creating the second draft of a novel can involve delictately altering the original story or it may require radical [...]

I want to create a sacred cow

This week I realized something that made me squirm; there’s a sacred cow in movies that I hate. And I’m ashamed to tell people. I’ve never heard of anyone disliking this movie. When I mention I don’t like it, people act like I’ve kicked Mother Teresa in the mouth. After I shot her. And peed [...]