I'm still being awed by The Crimson Petal and the White. Even though there is not much going on as far as plot or intrigue goes, the characters are more than enough to keep me interested. It's not in the way they look, or the things they say or do--they are just so well described, …
Stop avoiding confrontation
If someone is saying something you disagree with, speak up. Silence, or polite smiling and nodding, is equal to agreeing with them in their minds. Imagine you are going on about how awesome Nickleback is and everyone around you is either silent or nodding absently. You are going to assume your opinion is perfectly normal, …
Multiple I’s
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is written in first person, from two viewpoints. I don't see how the two stories are related just yet, but I expect it will become clear. Writing two different characters from a first person point of view seems strange. I would be wondering, as a reader, if …
Every writer
"Every writer I know has trouble writing." - Joseph Heller I love seeing quotes like these. Writers tend to be a solitary species, in my experience, so I think can sometimes talk themselves into believing they are terrible, just because they are having a hard time. Well, every writer has a hard time, even the best …
The final stretch
I'm very near to the end of a first draft of my novel, and am having a harder and harder time keeping thoughts of all the hard work ahead at bay. So many things to add, and change, and remove. So many crappy sentences to fix, words to remove, characters to insert and excise. It's …
Jonas David 