A story that is not relatable is of little use to anyone no matter how clearly it is written.

Most of the time, your life is how you want it to be. You are the reason your life is the way it is.

Critiquing other people’s manuscripts of fictional works is fun for me because I start off with a declaration saying, “My comments are my...

When I’m reading a story, and one character says to another, “We’ve talked about this,” my mind is thrown from the story.

Books written on the proper role of government fill entire library shelves. One could study the wisdom of the world’s greatest political...

If you want your readers to hate your scenes, make every character behave foolishly.

If you’ve spent any time studying the rules of writing fiction, you’ll know that stories must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Howeve

Why am I having difficulty picking ten villains? I believe it's because fiction must be entertaining, and that includes its villains.

I suspect that angels can be far more terrifying than anything you have come across in your lifetime.

On one occasion, I asked Mother if I could have one candy bar. Just one. To my surprise she said, "Yes."

I suppose most people would say the most important words in marriage are, “I love you,” or “You’re right, dear,” or “Please, forgive me

My twenty-one-year-old son asked me to pick my ten favorite movies of all time. He didn’t tell me why, so I cannot tell you the reason.

If you accelerate or decelerate unevenly while driving a vehicle, your passengers will feel jerked around. Don’t jerk your passengers.

The last forty times my wife and I watched movie trailers at a theater, she whispers to me, “They’ve shown too much.”

All human emotion stems from either love or fear.

Given the growing number of satirical websites that provide highly realistic information, I thought I would try my hand at such a...

When your prose is effective, your readers will become someone else in a different time and place.

If you want to immerse yourself in a creative and unique atmosphere that sends you far away to a distant land, then listen to a soundtrack.

The world will not accept you as an author any more than those whom you know personally.

Are you looking to choose a career? Let me help you. After reading this you’ll run off to the nearest university and register for classes.

I was surprised when I heard many authors express their fear of writing dialogue. “Dialogue is easy to write!” I said to myself.

A substantial number of academic papers have been written which describe human consciousness.

Deciding to write a unique novel is like deciding to write a better one. You must ask yourself, “Unique in what way?”

The following is the letter I sent my brother when I learned his son had chosen to play the trombone in high school.