A woman's hands cutting with scissors a printout reading “rules”

The limits of “Show Don’t Tell”

I wish the “Show don’t tell” rule would die a fiery death. It’s an arbitrary, misleading decree, widely abused in writing groups where it gives pedants a footing for unconstructive criticism that they don’t have to justify. It can push inexperienced writers into breaking the equally-misunderstood brevity rule, because sometimes showing takes a lot more …

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A desk cluttered with old photos and letters, and a hand writing in a notebook

Should you spend time writing character backgrounds?

A client in the early first-draft stage wonders whether he should spend time writing character backgrounds. It’s a good question. Personally, I have probably tens—maybe hundreds—of thousands of words in character interviews, backgrounds, childhood stories, 360-degree “performance reviews,” horoscopes… so you’re not going to hear from me that you shouldn’t do it. I’d just caution …

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Image from Cover of Restraint, A Novel

“I don’t think I’ve ever read anything so beautiful.”

Available at last! Buy now on Amazon   An Unacceptable Love Clergyman’s son John Waterfield is handsome, absurdly modest, and oblivious to the gossip swirling around him when he suddenly finds himself Regency London’s most celebrated new portrait artist. His success is assured, so long as he can hide his forbidden desires from society–and from …

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The stack

I got rid of my books a few years ago in a total home decluttering. This was at the thin end of the massive wedge that smartphones were becoming, and I was no longer reading much. Too distracted. And besides, I live in a very small house. Why cover the walls with bookcases? Anything I …

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It’s still there

My book cover for Restraint began with a thousand crazy tasks, and ended here: Ninety percent of the saga—junk shop scavenging, spray painting, sewing, pinning, upholstering, dyeing, borrowing, eBaying and freaking out-—has been has been cropped or photoshopped out of the final cover. And yet everyone agrees that it’s all still there, under the surface. Even …

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I’ll be published soon in nonfiction

Exciting news: I’ve been contracted to write a Story Grid Masterworks Edition in–of all things!–the Western genre. One of Shawn Coyne’s most powerful Story Grid tools is his study guide to the Love Story genre, in the form of an annotated Pride and Prejudice. It was instrumental to me in completing Restraint. As a Certified Story Grid  Editor, …

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