Every Novel Needs a Dynamic Opening
If you read “how to” guides on writing novels, they all agree that your story should open with some sort of action that represents a change for your protagonist. The scene should be dynamic, not static. There should be a … Continue reading
The Power of Storytelling in Business Books
When you think of the salient characteristics of a non-fiction self-help business book, what comes to mind? At first, you might expect such a book to be a “how-to” manual, with instructions on how to accomplish a specified goal. The … Continue reading
Should You End a Sentence With a Preposition?
In English grammar, a preposition is a word that typically comes before a noun or pronoun and expresses a relationship between that noun/pronoun and another word in the sentence. Prepositions indicate location, time, direction, manner, or other relationships. Here are … Continue reading
Do You Write for Yourself or Your Reader?
If you’re a writer, or indeed any type of artist, who are you working for? Yourself or your audience? There are many people who assert that every artist—writer, musician, painter, filmmaker—should follow their own muse and create what’s meaningful to … Continue reading
Be Nice to Your Reader!
I may be wading into treacherous waters here, but in my humble opinion too many literary novels that are highly praised by critics are in fact nearly incomprehensible to the average adult reader; and I get the feeling that too … Continue reading
Your Novel May Not Be Real, But It Must Be Believable!
In storytelling and novel writing, there is a big difference between what is objectively real and what is believable. This is the two-part rule: 1. Nothing in your story needs to be real. 2. Everything in your story must be … Continue reading
In Defense of “Take Action” Instead of “Act”
AI-powered grammar checkers and proofreaders such as Grammarly have become ubiquitous. To be fair, for the routine review of typos, spelling errors, and other obvious writing defects, these tools can be useful. Once in a while, a valued client will … Continue reading
How Long Should My Non-Fiction Book Be? Pages? Word Count?
One of the most frequent questions my valued clients ask me is how long their book should be. This is a complex question, and the answer depends on many factors. The bottom line is this: It should be exactly as … Continue reading
I Will Fix Your Lousy AI-Generated Document!
It’s astonishing, but just in the past few months many of my valued clients have sent me files of text – some of them short books with as many as 20,000 words – asking that I edit them. I read … Continue reading
Artificial Intelligence Editing Services: The McDonald’s of Literature
Ah, the modern world! So many new technologies that make our lives easier! Some of the most interesting emerging services provide manuscript editing powered by artificial intelligence. A good example is ProWritingAid, which analyzes your text and not only flags … Continue reading