It’s no secret that your environment can affect your creativity. If you’re sitting at your brightly lit desk in a chilly office, listening to loud music, and wondering why your next flash of genius isn’t coming to you, try swapping that environment for a warm, softly lit room. Maybe even put on some moderate ambient noise.

Even if you love the printed word, there’s something magic about cinema. How it happens is somewhat of a mystery—even for those involved in the production process. What’s even more amazing is how a writer can create the likes of Tony Soprano, Walter White, and Holly Golightly from a few lines of dialogue and sparse stage directions. To be sure, credit must be given to the director and actors involved, but a good character and a good story begins with good writing.

Scan the Table of Contents in most writing manuals and you’ll see the familiar menu of story mechanics. All good! Setting, characters, plot points and pillars, crisis, climax and resolution—without these ingredients we probably don’t have a fully-cooked story. But one essential is almost always missing—the heart of a story.

When writing a story, using the senses to make scenes more vivid and visceral is simple and obvious advice. You want the reader to feel like they’re right there with the characters, experiencing what they’re experiencing.

Using what the characters see, hear, smell, touch and taste will further reader engagement, but these are not the only senses people have. There are in fact a host of other senses that are often overlooked or are so abstract that it isn’t clear how to convey them on the page.

A simple google search will produce a list of senses other than the big five, but it isn’t enough to be aware of them, or to be able to define them. You want to be able to capture the feeling in a way that the reader will relate to, and relate to strongly.

You hear it all the time: prologues are evil. (And writers everywhere, commence howling.) Now I’ll grant that “evil” is a slight exaggeration. We might call them “dangerous” instead, except that word is pretty ironic, since one of the chief reasons a prologue is so dangerous is because it allows authors to play it waaaaay yonder too safe.

Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to. In life, we put up with this – we bear the disappointments, we try something new, we get over it. 

When writing a book, it’s different – we know that we can find a way to make it work.  Why? Simple reason: as the author we have complete control over the story world. We’re not lying on the operating table – we’re the surgeon with the cool brow and gleaming little scalpel.

How can you organize your life as a writer so you can spend more time writing?

What’s the best way to manage writing alongside other projects?

Why is it so hard to balance the act of writing with the day-to-day demands of life?

I think you’ll agree most writers have to achieve more than write every day–we have to do things like plan our research, market our writing, find a quiet place to work.

To build a compelling character (and write them convincingly) we want to make them real as possible, and that means developing a backstory that lets us understand them on a deeper level. This brainstorming time allows us create their unique personality by seeing how the people and events of their past helped to shape them. Knowing who and what influenced a character gives us insight into what they might fear, desire, and need most of all. With these key pieces of information, we will know what motivates them, which in turn dictates their reactions, responses and behaviors in the story.

n the endless sea of textbooks, essays and lectures, there are obviously more than enough pages about how to write better.

Be concrete. Focus on the core message. Evoke emotion. Entertain, surprise, tell a story, omit needless words.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Despite all this useful advice, many aspiring writers fail to heed the most important rule that is guaranteed to double your readers:

Trust your material.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the need to cram everything important into the first few pages of your first chapter, take a moment to step away from the keyboard. (Seriously. Stand back!)

We know taking breaks optimizes work-and-create flow. But what are the best practices and under what conditions? Some people advise mindful breaks. Others suggest full-blown hour-long naps. Much depends upon your circumstances and your desired ends.

Many writers struggle with time management, but I’ve taken this dilemma to a whole, new level. In this post I want to talk about how I’ve learned to accomplish twice the writing in half the time.

For writers, reading may seem as essential to life as breathing. But did you know reading has actually been proven to have surprising health benefits? So the next time you feel like your creativity has quit and your writing has wilted, reach for the remedy: your favorite book! Here are five remarkable ways that reading can improve your sense of well-being and keep you healthy:

As an editor and writing teacher, I read lots of good manuscript with terrible titles.  How much more compelling it would be if that good manuscript had a terrific title.

Terrific titles help sell manuscripts.  Because they catch the eye of the agent who has already scanned hundreds of queries that day.