First Pages of Best-Selling Novels: Avenue of Mysteries
I chose one of John Irving’s novels—Avenue of Mysteries—to examine in this week’s look at first pages. I read a…
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What Those Strange Pinch Points Are All About
You may have heard of pinch points. Or not. I’m going to take a look at these key markers in…
Ways Novelists Can Break from the Structural Rules
We’ve been looking at the downside to the three-act structure these last two weeks, and I’ve shared my thoughts on…
First Pages of Best-Selling Novels: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
For this week’s first-page examination, we’re going to dive into my favorite book that I listened to last year—The Ocean…
How to Break Up Your Novel into Definable Sections
Last week I started diving into the three-act structure and explained that such structure is random and arbitrary. While many…
First Pages of Best-Selling Novels: All the Light We Cannot See
This week we’re going to look at the first page of the highly acclaimed novel All the Light We Cannot…
What Writers May Not Know about the “Required” Three-Act Structure
I’m going to spend some weeks on tearing apart novel structure. I’ve hesitated over the years to get into this….
Tips to Crafting a Successful Novel Series
Many authors plan to write a series, but I’ve noticed when critiquing and editing novels that are part of a…
First Pages of Best-Selling Novels: Closer to the Heart
I couldn’t resist including one of my favorite fantasy author’s novels. I’ve read most of Mercedes Lackey’s books, as have…
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