Why It Takes A Village To Write A Novel

by James L. Rubart

When it comes to your novels, you’re probably in one of three camps:

1. You think you can write your story by yourself.

2. You realize writing a compelling novel takes a village, a country, the universe.

3. You need to be reminded of fact number two.

I fell completely into camp three during the writing of my latest manuscript. Whoops. 

In January I told my friend Susie the synopsis of the novel. After I was through, she frowned. Not a good sign.

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Freeze Frame: Creating a Stronger Scene

by Beth Vogt @bethvogt

We all know the advantage of prep work when we paint a room or cook a Thanksgiving turkey.

In the same way, it helps to do some prep work before writing a scene. I’ve used several techniques from author Susan May Warren – FOCUS and the 5 Ws are two favorites. And when I attended a writers conference last year, I learned the Freeze Frame technique by agent and author Donald Maass, and found a fresh new way to prep a scene.

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