Have you ever been writing a story and come up against a scene and been at a loss as to what to write or how to handle the specifics of a scene? Whether you are a detailed plotter or someone who likes to just sit down and write freeform, a story is made up...

Have you ever had a wonderful plan to write something, a scene or a section of your fantastic novel, and then not been able to carry it off? You know, you are on a long drive or out running errands and stuck in traffic and it comes to you, “Eureka!” you cry, “now I...

A writer friend of mine recently had a dilemma about a novel she has been working on for quite awhile. She’d written close to 700 pages of material and felt the story was bogged down but had some great scenes and parts. She wasn’t sure if she should abandon it and begin again. I...

What is it that draws us to writing, and especially to writing fiction? While the answer is unique to each writer, for me it is creating that magic that so enthralled me as a reader. Reading allowed me to escape from the dull and sometimes painful experiences of childhood and to enter worlds that...

There are many reasons people feel drawn to write. Why did the first of our ancestors pick up some burnt sticks and scrawl images on cave walls or make marks on wood and stones in the forests of the Celtic isles? My experience tells me that there are two elemental reasons people write: 1....

Writing, like any other activity humans engage in, is a target for procrastination. You might wonder how something as simple as placing words down on a page or up on a screen in a particular order would be a cause for consternation and procrastination, but it is. Every writer knows this. If you are...