What makes a character memorable? Deborah Chester writes in her article, Bonding with Your Characters : "We want readers to either love...

What makes a story seem real? What gives it verisimilitude? I'm trying out a new idea or perhaps just putting a twist on an old one. I&#...

In a murder mystery the detective is usually the protagonist, but not always. For example, in the TV show  Lucifer  the detective’...

This post is a continuation of my last post, Writing a Murder Mystery, Character Creation: The Murderer, Part One of Two . Let’s cont...

Let's talk about the victim and her importance to a murder mystery. In a sense, she is the central character. Of cour...

This is the final post in my series on the Three Act Structure for genre stories. Yes! (I always get a bit excited when I write the l...

My mother cleaned our house from top to bottom every year; she cleaned out every drawer, every cupboard, every closet.  That’s prac...

What is suspense and how is it created? Lee Goldberg once said that, "Suspense is an escalating sense of apprehension or fear,...

What do you have over your writing desk? Mine is littered with pieces of paper on which I've scribbled bits of (what I think is) sa...

Have you ever had the experience of suddenly seeing something everywhere after you begin studying it? Of having something 'on your mi...