How Not To Write

When you’re in a rut, the last thing you want to hear is how critical plotting is to creating a successful novel. You know it’s true, but knowing it is not going to get it done. In fact, all the plotting and planning in the world won’t get the book past page 20, [...]

Writing is a tough bag. One must sit for hours on end, bashing away at the unforgiving machine, reworking intractable sentences, marshaling uncooperative characters, and generally beating about the bush with something called a plot. It is a dreadful industry filled with crackpots and dreamers, psychotic failures, and of course a fair share [...]

In my dreams, people come to How Not To Write and laugh. They snicker and point. They chortle… Then, they wander back out and maybe something they read triggers a thought about their own work. Maybe they even find something useful.
That is my dream…. or one of them at least.
There is [...]

If success is about learning from your mistakes, then I ought to be the greatest writer alive. Obviously, something is terribly wrong with this line of thinking…