Plotting

Thumbnail image for 10 Things You Need to Know to Write & Sell Your First Romance Novel

10 Things You Need to Know to Write & Sell Your First Romance Novel

See this article as an illustrated PDF. Summer is coming, and so are the romance conventions, most notably the Romance Writers of America convention to be held in New York City beginning at the end of June. It’s the premiere convention for hopeful writers who attend workshops and panels in the hope of learning the [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Fiction Technique Tip: The Reaction Section

Fiction Technique Tip: The Reaction Section

In The Marshall Plan® novel writing system, there are two units of story action: the action section and the reaction section. The action section is where your story’s action takes place; one of your viewpoint characters seeks to achieve a short-term, or section goal that she thinks will take her closer to achieving her overall [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Vital to Your Novel: 3 “Surprises”

Vital to Your Novel: 3 “Surprises”

An important part of The Marshall Plan® novel writing system is building into your story at least three “surprises.” A surprise is an especially dramatic event that occurs in the “failure” phase of sections in these three places in your story: at the end of the Beginning (or one-quarter of the way through your story) [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Anticipating Trends

Anticipating Trends

When deciding what kind of novel to write, it’s not always smart to pick a genre that’s currently hot. By the time your novel is written and on submission to editors, that genre may have gone cold. Some genres appear to be eternally hot—vampire fiction, for instance—but everything cools off eventually. You’re always safer trying [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for When Genres Collide

When Genres Collide

Anyone familiar with my novel writing system or my views on fiction writing in general know I stress targeting a specific genre when tackling a novel. Is it a romance? A mystery? A science fiction novel? A Western? I stress this simply because editors stress it, and I’m all about not only writing novels but [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Novelists

10 New Year’s Resolutions for Novelists

I will decide on one genre of novel—the genre I most enjoy reading—and stick with it. I will study novels in this target genre to get a good idea of the kinds of stories they tell. I will work hard to come up with a story idea that fits my target genre yet is fresh [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Your NaNoWriMo Manuscript: Making Adjustments

Your NaNoWriMo Manuscript: Making Adjustments

You did it—you finished a manuscript by the end of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, but it falls short of your goal of 50,000 words. This often happens: novelists find themselves typing “The End,” only to realize their word count is too short. Here are some tips for adding additional pages to your novel without [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries