By John Sammon Last week I mentioned writing a novel that is a roman a’ clef. This is where you write a novel where a character or characters are based on real living people that you have met or know....
By John Sammon In writing a novel (or a nonfiction book) you will use good grammar. In this column I will not be covering that topic or punctuation or any of the most basic skills in writing. I’m assu...
By John Sammon Last week we talked about picking a genre to write a novel and I listed them to include science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, thriller, literary fiction, monster, horror, historic...
By John Sammon In novel writing the principal genres include science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, thriller, literary fiction, monster, horror, historical fiction and westerns. There are others....
I said in the first installment of this column that achieving the publication of a novel (or nonfiction book) can make you feel good about yourself, particularly if you’re a person who feels your prof...
If you’re writing a novel its plotting will determine if the book is a success and I’m reminded of an old Russian proverb, “Hope for the best, expect the worst.” Or to put it another way, sometimes it...
By – John Sammon When it comes to creating a character, truth is often stranger than fiction. We’ve been talking about creating characters for your novel that are realistic, full-dimensional fig...
Last week we talked about making the characters in your book compelling and interesting and the most simple way to do this is to have them struggle against something or someone. A character who faces ...
By John Sammon In writing a book boredom is the first deadly sin. To have any chance of getting a publisher to publish your book and then readers to read it, you have to have characters whose actions,...
Theory X, a management style developed by Douglas McGregor a Professor of Management at MIT (a Massachusetts University), in a book in 1960 surmised that “People are inherently lazy, and will avoid re...