Is coming up with a plot harder than you expected? Answering the questions below should help you nail some of your plot's basics, along with a few twists and turns. Write down your idea(s). It should involve somebody doing something or experiencing something that is...
So you've tried to develop fictional characters when you write. If they still seem like characters rather than people, you probably haven't figured out who they really are. Writers who know their characters inside and out often say that those characters not...
Assuming you haven't sold the audio rights to your book, you can take it to the next level by publishing your own audiobook. For those of you who haven't signed any contracts yet, making a deal with a publishing company for print rights is far different than giving...
If you haven't yet read my father Leonard Gross's riveting The Last Jews in Berlin, you can now listen to the just-published audio version. This critically acclaimed account of twelve Jews who went underground in Nazi Berlin—and survived—became a New York Times...
Writing details can breathe life into your prose. But you have to choose the right details to focus on, and then use them judiciously. For starters, that means no laundry lists. Finding that one feature to focus on that's as revealing as it is evocative will grab your...
A while back, I wrote a post about a T-shirt my client Jim Mazziotti gave me while he was editing his manuscript. As you can see directly below, he wasn't having the easiest time. Fast forward. Not only has Jim published his book titled The Challenge: How 144 Letters...
Three years ago this month, serial entrepreneur Craig Hall and I began discussing a book he had in mind. We had already established a track record and a friendship with A Perfect Score: The Art, Soul, and Business of a 21st-Century Winery, the national bestseller I...
Writing coach client David Rosell’s book Failure Is Not an Option: Creating Certainty in the Uncertainty of Retirement has been so successful with clients and prospects that he decided to give it a whole new look when he published yet another new edition. So when it...
Tracia Larimer isn't your ordinary mortgage broker. So when this creative, never-take-no-for-an-answer Bend, Oregon professional wanted to spread the word about her business, she decided to write a short book that would answer a lot of her clients' questions and help...
If you've fallen in love with your manuscript, I'm guessing you've finished your first draft and haven't quite managed to move into the editing phase. Time to get over yourself, at least when it comes to your writing. But it's not always easy to see the flaws in your...
