Writers are often told not to use adverbs in dialogue tags. For example: “You are dead to me,” he said coldly. Or, worse: “...

Enthusiasm. Passion. Inspiration. These words are pale descriptions, gestures toward the drive that causes us to bury ourselves in ...

I had a busy weekend. What was I doing, you ask? I was combing through the contents of my digital bookshelf looking at the words, esp...

In the next few weeks and months, in addition to looking at the abstract principles of writing I want to spend time examining actual wr...

As many of you know, I’m reading Robert McKee’s, Story . It seems like each page— certainly each chapter — he looks at an old concept i...

I know some of you are rolling your eyes at the mention of creative visualization, but bear with me a moment. Yes, creative visualization ...

I’m reading “Story,” by Robert McKee and kicking myself for not doing this long ago. I’ve reached the part where McKee talks about th...

So far our story has set a fairly quick pace. We’ve introduced the setting and the protagonist. We’ve introduced the protagonist’s a...

In his short essay, “Theseus and the Minotaur (1500 BC),” which appears in Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads , Lee Child discusses and diss...

Today I continue my series on the structure of short stories. Short stories are a terrific way to learn the craft of writing: ...